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TWENTY  CENTURIES 
OF  PARIS 


BY 
MABELL   S.    C.    SMITH 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS   Y.   CROWELL  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Arms  of  the  City  of  Paris. 


Copyright,  1913, 
Bt  THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  COMPANY. 


Published  October,  1913. 


TO 

M.  P.  G. 


Un  rayon  de  soleil  a  ses  entrees  partout. 

Sardou 


2007911 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.  Earliest   Paris 1 

II.  Merovingian    Paris 16 

III.  Carlovingian  Paris 32 

IV.  Paris  of  the  Early  Capetians  ...  44 

V.  Paris  of  Philip  Augustus 69 

VI.  Paris  of  Saint  Louis 90 

VII.   Paris  of  Philip  the  Fair 105 

VIII.  Paris  of  the  Early  Valois  ....  129 

IX.  Paris  of  Charles  V 153 

X.  Paris  of  the  Hundred  Years'  W^ar  .     .  165 
XL  Paris  of  the  Later  Fifteenth   Cen- 
tury        189 

XII.  Paris  of  the  Renaissance 199 

XIII.  Paris  of   the  Reformation   ....  214 

XIV.  Paris  of  Henry  IV 230 

XV.  Paris  of  Richelieu 248 

XVI.  Paris  of  the  "  Grand  Monarque  "  .     .  260 

XVII.  Paris  of  Louis  the  "  Well-Beloved  "  274 

XVIII.  Paris  of  the  Revolution 287 

XIX.  Paris  of  Napoleon 310 

XX.  Paris  of  the  Lesser  Revolutions  .     .  338 

XXI.  Paris  of  Louis  Napoleon 355 

XXII.  Paris  of  To-day 369 

Appendix 385 

Index 395 

V 


MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Panorama   of  Paris Frontispiece 

Arms  of  the  City  of  Paris  To-day    .     Copyright  page 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

Map  of  Paris 1 

Lutetia  under  the  Romans  (Map)  .     .     .     page  7 

Interior  of  the  Roman  Palais  des  Thermes  ...  10 

Amphitheater  of  Lutetia  at  Present  Time  ...  10 

Saint  Germain  des  Pres 30 

France  at  Time  of  Hugh  Capet  (Map)   .     page  45 

The  Louvre  in  Time  of  Philip  Augustus  ...  78 

Fragment  of  Wall  of  Philip  Augustus  ....  78 

Tour  de  Nesle  in  1661 82 

Choir  and  Nave  of  Notre  Dame,  looking  West  .  86 

Nave  of  Saint  Germain  des  Pres 86 

Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame 88 

The  Sainte  Chapelle,  erected  by  Louis  IX  .     .  100 

Interior  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle 100 

Hotel    de    Cluny 116 

Hotel  de  Sens 116 

The  Old  Louvre page  161 

Arms  of  City  of  Paris  under  Charles  V  .     .       "  164 

Oldest  Known  Map  of  Paris     .     between  182  and  183 
Churches   of  Saint   Etienne-du-Mont  and  Sainte 

Genevieve  in  17th  Century 190 

Jube  in  Church  of  Saint  Etienne-du-Mont   .     .  190 

Church  of  Saint  Severin 194 

Church  of  Saint  Germain  I'Auxerrois  in  1835  .  198 

vii 


viii  MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE  PAGE 

Tour  de  Saint  Jacques  de  la  Boucherie  ....  198 

The    College    of    France 206 

House  of  Francis  I  on  the  Cours-la-Reine  .     .      .  206 

Cellier's  Drawing  of  Hotel  de  Ville  .      .     .     page  208 

Column  at  the  Hotel  de  Soissons  ...         "  223 

Hotel  Carnavalet 224 

The   Samaritaine 240 

Statue  of  Henry  IV  on  the  Pont  Neuf  ....  240 

The   Archbishop's    Palace 252 

Richelieu's   Palais    Cardinal,   later   called   Palais 

Royal 252 

Palace   of   the  Luxembourg 256 

Court  of  Honor  of  National  Library  ....  256 

Hotel  des   Invalides 272 

Saint   Sulpice 272 

Elysee  Palace,  Residence  of  President  of  France  .  280 

Chamber  of  Deputies  (Palais  Bourbon)      .      .      .  280 

Church  of  Sainte  Genevieve,  now  the  Pantheon  .  284 

The  Odeon 290 

The  Comedie  Francaise  about  1785 290 

"The  Convention,"  by  Sicard 308 

Rue  de  Rivoli 326 

Triumphal  Arch  of  the  Carrousel 330 

Triumphal  Arch  of  the  Star 330 

Napoleon's    Tomb 336 

The    Bourse 346 

Church   of  the   Madeleine 346 

The  Successive  Walls  of  Paris  .     between  366  and  367 

The  Strasbourg  Statue 360 

The   EifFel   Tower 360 

The  New  Louvre .  370 


MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  ix 

OPPOSITE    PAQH 

Hotel  de  Ville 374 

Mairie  of  the  Arrondissement  of  the  Temple  .      .  376 

Salle  des   Fetes,  Hotel  de  Ville 376 

Portions    of    the    Louvre    built    by    Francis    I, 

Henry  II,  and  Louis  XIII 378 

Colonnade,  East  End  of  Louvre,  built  by  Louis 

XIV 378 

Section  of  Louvre  begun  by  Henry  IV  .  .  .  .  380 
Northwest  Wing  of  Louvre,  built  by  Napoleon  I, 

Louis  XVIII,  and  Napoleon  III 380 

Plan  of  the  Louvre pag^  382 


Twenty  Centuries  of 
Paris 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLIEST    PARIS 

FRANCE  has  been  inhabited  since  the  days 
when  prehistoric  man  unconsciously  told 
the  story  of  his  life  through  the  medium 
of  the  household  utensils  and  the  implements  of 
war  which  he  left  behind  him  in  the  caves  in  which 
he  dwelt,  or  which  his  considerate  relatives  buried 
with  him  to  make  his  sojourn  easy  in  the  land  be- 
yond the  grave.  From  bits  of  bone,  of  flint,  and 
of  polished  stone  archaeologists  have  recon- 
structed the  man  himself  and  his  activities 
through  the  early  ages.  Of  contemporary  in- 
formation, however,  there  is  none  until  the  ad- 
venturous peoples  of  the  Mediterranean  pushed 
their  way  as  traders  and  explorers  into  the  heart 
of  Gaul,  and  then  wrote  about  their  discoveries. 
The  Gauls,  they  said,  were  largely  Celtic  in 
origin  and  had  displaced  an  earlier  race,  the  Ibe- 
rians, whom  they  had  crowded  to  the  southwest. 
They  were  brave,  loyal,  superstitious,  and  sub- 
ject to  their  priests,  the  Druids.     Their  dress 


2  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

showed  that  they  had  made  great  advance  in 
knowledge  over  the  cave  men,  for  they  wore  col- 
ored tmiics — which  meant  that  they  knew  how  to 
spin  and  weave  and  dye — and  brazen  helmets 
and  shields  and  gold  and  silver  girdles — which 
meant  that  they  could  work  in  metal. 

Such  industries  prove  that  the  nomadic  life 
was  over,  and,  in  truth,  there  were  many  towns 
throughout  Gaul,  some  of  them  of  no  mean  size, 
furnished  with  public  utilities  such  as  wells  and 
bridges,  and  surrounded  by  fields  made  fertile  by 
irrigation.  An  independent  spirit  had  devel- 
oped, too,  for  in  about  the  year  500  B.C.  the 
chiefs  and  nobles  rebelled  against  the  lay  author- 
ity of  the  Druids.  Then  these  chiefs  and  nobles 
seem  to  have  ruled  "  without  the  consent  of  the 
governed,"  for  Caesar  relates  that  before  he  went 
to  Gaul  in  58  B.C.  the  lower  classes  had  rebelled 
against  the  upper,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the 
Druids,  had  beaten  them. 

It  is  from  Ceesar,  too,  that  we  first  learn  some- 
thing about  Paris.  "  Lutetia,"  he  calls  it,  "  a 
stronghold  of  the  Parisii,"  who  were  one  of  the 
three  or  four  hundred  tribes  who  dwelt  in  Gaul. 
Lutetia — "  JNIudtown  "  Carlyle  translates  the 
name — was  not  much  of  a  stronghold,  for  its 
fortifications  could  have  been  nothing  more  than 
a  stockade  encircling  the  round  huts  which  made 
up  the  village  occupying  an  island  in  the  Seine, 


EARLIEST  PARIS  3 

the  present  "  Cite  "  (from  the  Latin  civitas) ,  and 
connected  with  both  banks  by  bridges.  It  was 
only  about  half  a  mile  long  and  an  eighth  of 
a  mile  wide.  It  was  large  enough  and  strong 
enough,  however,  to  serve  as  a  refuge  for  the 
tribesmen  in  time  of  war.  Probably  such  a 
haven  was  not  an  unusual  arrangement.  Not  far 
from  Paris  is  another  instance  in  Melun  which 
has  grown  around  the  village  which  the  Romans 
called  JNIelodunum,  built  in  the  same  way  on  an 
island  in  the  river. 

In  the  spring  of  53  B.C.  Ctesar  smnmoned  dele- 
gates from  all  the  tribes  of  Gaul  to  meet  at  Lu- 
tetia,  but  the  rebellion  of  the  year  52  in  which 
the  Parisii  joined  determined  the  Roman  general 
to  destroy  the  town  and  crush  the  tribe.  He  sent 
Labienus  with  four  legions  to  carry  out  his  plans. 
The  Gaids  chose  as  their  leader  Camulogenus  of 
the  tribe  of  the  Aulerci,  an  old  man,  but  skilled 
in  warfare.  He  took  advantage  of  the  marsh 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  and  so  stationed  his 
troops  as  to  prevent  the  approach  of  the  Romans 
to  the  little  town.  Labienus  first  tried  to  make 
a  road  across  the  bog  by  laying  do\vn  hurdles 
plastered  with  clay.  This  proved  too  much  of 
an  undertaking,  so  he  slipped  away  "  at  the  third 
watch  "  and  retraced  his  steps  to  Melodunum. 
There  he  seized  fifty  ships  which  he  filled  with 
Roman  soldiers  and  with  them  threatened  the 


4  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

town  so  effectually  that  it  yielded  to  him.  Then 
he  repaired  the  bridge,  crossed  to  the  left  bank, 
and  once  more  began  his  march  toward  Lutetia. 
When  the  Lutetians  heard  of  this  move  from 
refugees,  they  burned  their  town  and  destroyed 
its  bridges.  Labienus  put  a  Roman  knight  in 
command  of  each  of  the  fifty  ships  which  he  had 
captured  and  ordered  them  to  slip  silently  down 
the  river  for  about  four  miles  under  cover  of 
darkness.  Five  steady  cohorts  he  left  to  guard 
the  camp,  and  another  five  he  despatched  up  the 
river  after  midnight  with  instructions  to  carry 
their  baggage  with  no  attempt  at  quiet.  In  the 
same  direction  he  sent  certain  small  boats  whose 
oars  were  to  meet  the  water  right  noisily.  He 
himself  led  a  body  of  soldiers  in  the  direction 
which  the  ships  had  taken.  When  the  Gauls 
were  informed  by  their  scouts  of  the  seeming 
division  into  three  bands  of  the  Roman  army 
they,  natm-ally  but  unwisely,  made  a  like  divi- 
sion of  their  o^vn  men.  In  the  battle  that  en- 
sued— probably  near  the  Ivry  of  to-day — the 
Gauls  resisted  with  such  courage  that  very 
few  took  refuge  in  flight,  preferring  to  fall  with 
the  valiant  Camulogenus.  The  Gauls  left  to 
watch  Labienus's  camp  tried  to  aid  their  fel- 
lows when  they  heard  of  the  battle  in  progress, 
but  they  could  not  withstand  the  attack  of  the 
victorious  Romans,  whose  cavalry  cut  down  all 


EARLIEST  PARIS  5 

but  the  few  who  managed  to  escape  to  the 
wooded  hills. 

So  it  happens,  rather  humorously,  that  the 
earliest  written  account  of  Paris  is  that  telling 
of  the  destruction  which  left  its  site  a  clean  slate 
upon  which  the  Romans  might  begin  to  write 
its  story.  For  five  hundred  years  they  wrote, 
imtil  the  Frankish  invasion  swept  its  destructive 
might  across  Romanized  Gaul. 

In  five  himdred  years  much  may  be  brought 
to  pass,  and  the  Paris  that  Sainte  Genevieve 
saved  from  Attila  the  Hun  (451  a.d.)  and  in 
which  Clovis  established  himself  (481)  was  a 
town  vastly  different  from  the  stockade-de- 
fended hamlet  which  Labienus  set  out  to  destroy. 
While  its  position  was  selected  by  the  Gauls  be- 
cause it  could  be  easily  defended,  it  was  evident 
in  later  and  more  peaceful  times  that  the  city 
could  be  developed  into  a  valuable  commercial 
station.  The  Seine  and  its  tributaries,  the 
Marne  and  the  Oise,  proved  highways  on  which 
the  products  of  a  large  district  could  be  carried 
to  the  distributing  center,  Lutetia,  whence  they 
could  be  packed  north  or  south  or  to  the  coast 
provinces  over  the  masterly  roads  which  always 
made  an  important  feature  of  the  Roman 
colonizing  policy.  There  are  Paris  streets  to- 
day which  follow  these  same  roads  into  the 
country. 


6  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Roman  civilization  made  its  last  stand  in 
Gaul,  and  Paris  became  one  of  the  flourishing 
places  which  the  Romans  knew  how  to  encour- 
age. As  soon  as  the  strength  of  the  builders 
permitted,  the  town  ceased  to  be  confined  to  the 
island  and  spread  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  A 
bridge,  fortified  at  the  mainland  end,  connected 
the  island  with  the  right  bank  and  with  the  road 
threading  its  way  northward  to  avoid  the  marsh 
whose  name  (Marais)  is  still  given  to  a  district 
of  the  city.  Where  now  on  the  north  shore  is 
the  square  in  front  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  there 
has  always  been  an  open  place,  originally  kept 
free  for  the  landing  of  merchandise  from  the 
river  boats.  This  open  place  was  called  the 
Greve  or  Strand,  and  the  busy  scenes  enacted 
upon  it  sometimes  included  quarrels  between  the 
masters  and  the  longshoremen.  Such  a  dispute 
came  to  be  called  a  greve,  the  French  word  to- 
day for  a  strike. 

Where  now  the  Palais  Royal  rises  on  the  right 
bank,  a  reservoir  held  water  to  supply  the  pub- 
lic baths.  Tombs  clustered  along  the  roads  lead- 
ing north  and  east,  for  cemeteries  were  not  al- 
lowed within  Roman  cities.  Otherwise  the  north 
side  of  the  river  with  its  unwholesome  marsh 
was  but  scantily  populated. 

Far  different  was  the  southern  or  left  bank, 
sloping  pleasantly  to  the  Seine  from  Mons  Lu- 


EARLIEST  PARIS 


LUTETIA  UNDER    THE  ROMANS. 


8  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

cotetius.  This  hill  is  now  known  as  Mont 
Sainte  Genevieve  and  is  crowned  by  the  church, 
Saint  Etienne-du-Mont,  that  holds  her  tomb,  and 
by  the  Pantheon,  long  dedicated  to  her,  but  now 
a  secular  building.  This  southern  district  was 
drained  by  the  little  stream,  Bievre,  whose 
waters  in  later  times  were  believed  to  hold  some 
chemical  properties  which  accounted  for  the 
brillianc}^  of  the  tapestries  made  in  the  Gobelins 
factory  situated  on  its  banks.  Fields,  fruitful  in 
vines  and  olive  trees,  clustered  around  villas 
which  the  Romans  knew  well  how  to  build  for 
comfort  and  beauty,  and  which  the  conquered 
Gauls  were  not  slow  to  adopt,  modifying  the 
form  to  their  needs  as  they  modified  the  Roman 
dress,  covering  with  the  graceful  toga  the  busi- 
ness-like garments  of  older  Gaul. 

The  later  emperors  came  often  to  Lutetia. 
They,  too,  saw  the  beauty  of  the  river's  left  bank 
connected  with  the  Cite  by  a  fortified  bridge. 
Some  one  of  them,  probably  Constantius 
Chlorus,  built  a  palace  of  majestic  size  with  gar- 
dens sweeping  to  the  river  bank,  and  here  in  Lu- 
cotecia,  Lutetia's  suburb,  Constantine  the  Great 
and  his  two  sons  lived  when  they  visited  this  part 
of  Gaul.  Constantine's  nephew,  Julian,  called 
the  Apostate  because  of  his  adherence  to  the 
old  philosophies,  spent  parts  of  three  years  here. 

"  I  was  in  winter  quarters,"  he  wrote,  "  in  my 


EARLIEST  PARIS  9 

dear  Lutetia,  which  is  situated  in  the  middle  of 
a  river  on  an  island  of  moderate  size  joined  to 
the  mainland  by  two  bridges.  The  winter  is  less 
severe  here  than  elsewhere,  perhaps  because  of 
the  gentle  sea  breezes  which  reach  Lutetia,  the 
distance  of  this  city  from  the  sea  being  only  nine 
hundred  stadia.  This  part  of  the  country  has 
excellent  vineyards,  and  the  people  cultivate 
fig-trees  which  they  protect  against  the  winter's 
cold  by  coverings  of  straw." 

In  the  huge  palace  where  Julian  found  him- 
self so  happy  his  physician,  Oribasius,  prepared 
an  edition  of  the  works  of  Galen,  the  first  book 
published  in  Paris;  and  here  it  was — or  per- 
haps in  the  palace  on  the  Cite — that  in  361  the 
rebellious  Roman  soldiers  proclaimed  Julian  as 
their  emperor.  Of  the  palace  there  is  left  to- 
day what  was  probably  but  a  small  part  of  the 
original  building,  but  which  is,  in  reality,  a  sec- 
tion of  no  small  size.  It  was  that  portion  of  the 
structure  which  contained  the  baths,  and  it  gave 
its  name  to  the  building — Palais  des  Thermes 
(Palace  of  the  Baths).  One  room,  preserved  in 
fair  condition  and  showing  the  enduring  Roman 
brick  and  stone-work,  is  sixty-five  feet  long  and 
thirty-seven  feet  wide  and  springs  to  a  vaulted 
height  of  fifty-nine  feet.  It  is  used  as  a  mu- 
seum of  Gallo-Roman  remains.  The  baths  were 
supphed  with  water  by  an  aqueduct  some  eleven 


10         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

miles  in  length,  fragments  of  which  have  been 
found  at  various  parts  of  its  course.  At  Ar- 
cueil,  a  town  three  miles  from  Paris,  named 
from  the  Latin  word  arculus,  a  little  arch,  there 
still  remain  parts  of  two  arches  whose  small 
stones  are  held  by  the  extraordinarily  tenacious 
Roman  cement  and  are  varied  by  occasional  thin, 
horizontal  layers  of  red  tiles.  At  present  they 
are  built  into  the  walls  of  a  chateau  which  has 
recently  been  bequeathed  to  the  town  for  an  old 
men's  home. 

Somewhere  south  of  the  palace  and  not  far 
from  it  was  a  garrison  to  protect  the  suburb  and 
the  Cite  from  southern  invasion.  That  it  was 
not  greatly  needed  during  this  peaceful  and 
prosperous  period  seems  proved  by  the  fact  that 
Lutetia's  amusement  ground  was  not  within 
its  easy  reach,  but  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Mons 
Lucotetius.  Here  at  some  time  ditring  the 
Roman  occupation,  perhaps  during  the  second 
or  third  century,  an  amphitheater  was  built,  and 
here  emperors  and  generals  and  merchants, 
Romans  and  Gauls,  gazed  upon  the  pageants  and 
contests  of  the  arena.  Christianity  wrought  a 
milder  mood  in  her  believers  and  even  before  the 
invasion  of  the  Franks  the  stone  seats  of  the 
ellipse  had  been  converted  to  other  uses. 
Enough  was  discovered,  however,  some  thirty 


INTERIOR    OF    THE    ROMAN     PALAIS     DES    THERMES. 


AMPHITHEATER    OF     LUTETIA    AT    PRESENT    TIME. 


EARLIEST  PARIS  11 

years  ago  to  permit  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
original  appearance. 

To  Julian  has  been  attributed  the  rebuilding 
of  the  Cite,  and  excavations  at  different  points 
have  unearthed  remains  unmistakably  of  Roman 
workmanship,  which  show  that  the  island  was 
completely  surroimded  by  a  wall.  Probably 
some  of  the  stones  of  the  amphitheater  went  into 
it.  This  fortification  has  been  related  to  the 
fourth  century,  and  it  is  known  that  on  the  spot 
in  the  Cite  where  the  Palais  de  Justice  now 
houses  the  law  com-ts,  an  administrative  build- 
ing of  some  kind  has  stood  since  this  same  early 
date.  One  of  Julian's  successors,  Maximus, 
erected  a  triumphal  arch  near  the  cathedral  in 
383,  and  it  is  probable  that  other  pretentious 
structures  justified  the  erection  of  the  protect- 
ing wall. 

The  cathedral  was  a  church  dedicated  to  Saint 
Etienne,  modest  as  compared  with  its  medieval 
successor,  Notre  Dame,  whose  sacristy  is  placed 
on  the  same  spot,  yet  showing  that  concentra- 
tion of  the  arts  in  their  expression  of  religious 
spirit  which  has  made  the  churches  of  Europe 
at  once  the  treasure-house  of  the  student  and  the 
devotee,  the  inspiration  of  the  poet,  and  the  joy 
of  the  lover  of  color  and  of  line.  Both  of  these 
Christian  churches  have  stood  on  ground  already 
dedicated  to  religion,  for  under  the  choir  of  Notre 


12 


TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 


Dame  there  was  discovered  in  1711  a  pagan  altar, 
now  the  chief  relic  of  the  museum  in  the  Thermes. 
The  inscription  on  the  stone  places  it  in  the 
reign  of  the  emperor  Tiberius  (14-37  a.  d.), 
the  successor  of  the  great  Augustus.  Its  inscrip- 
tion reads:  "When  Tiberius  was  emperor  the 
Parisian  Watermen  publicly  raised  this  altar  to 
Jupiter,  best  and  greatest." 


The  Naut^  Stone. 
These  Watermen  (Nautae)  seem  from  early- 
days  to  have  been  an  important  guild,  first  as 
carriers  of  merchandise  and  later  as  an  adminis- 
trative body.  In  the  twelfth  century  the  band 
was  called  the  Brotherhood  of  Water  Mer- 
chants, and  its  head  the  Provost  of  the  Water 
Merchants,  a  name  given  in  shortened  form — 
Provost  of  the  Merchants — to  the  first  magistrate 
of  the  city  up  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution  at  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Even  to-day  such 
of  the  duties  of  the  Prefect  of  the  Seine  as  apply 


EARLIEST  PARIS  13 

not  to  the  Department  of  the  Seine  but  to  the 
city  of  Paris  alone  are  comparable  to  those  of 
the  Provost  of  the  Merchants.  From  the  seal  of 
the  Nautae,  a  boat,  has  developed  the  present 
coat  of  arms  of  the  City  of  Paris. 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
that  the  altar  to  greatest  Jupiter  began  to  be 
deserted  by  its  worshipers,  for  it  was  then  that 
Saint  Denis  came  to  Paris  to  preach  the  new 
religion,  and  with  his  coming  and  the  Emperor 
Constantine's  conversion  Clmstian  churches  be- 
gan to  be  built.  Even  the  martyrdom  of  Saint 
Denis,  who,  according  to  Gregory  of  Tours, 
"  ended  his  earthly  life  by  the  sword,"  was  no 
check  to  believers.  Legend  has  it  that  his  head 
was  stricken  off  on  Montmartre,  the  hill  tower- 
ing above  Paris  on  the  north,  and  to-day 
crowned  by  the  pearl-white  dome  of  the  basilica 
of  the  Sacre  Coeui*  gleaming,  mysterious, 
through  the  city's  eternal  haze.  The  hill's  name 
has  been  said  to  mean  "  Mount  of  Mars,"  be- 
cause of  a  pagan  altar  raised  upon  its  summit, 
or  "  Mount  of  the  ^Martyr,"  referring  to  the 
death  of  Saint  Denis.  Either  derivation  may 
be  defended,  and  neither  contradicts  the  story 
that  the  holy  Bishop  of  Paris,  decapitated, 
picked  up  his  head  and  carried  it  for  several 
miles  before  a  kindly-disposed  woman  offered 
him   burial.      Over   his   remains   a   chapel   was 


14.         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

raised,  restored  about  two  centuries  later  by 
Sainte  Genevieve,  and  replaced  in  630  by  the 
basilica  which  Dagobert  I  (602-638)  erected  to 
house  fittingly  that  most  holy  relic,  the  head  of 
the  saint.  The  existing  church  was  begun  about 
five  hundred  years  later  by  Suger,  the  minister 
of  Louis  VI  who  adopted  the  oriflamme  of  Saint 
Denis  as  the  royal  standard  of  France.  The  flag 
hung  above  the  altar  and  was  used  only  when 
the  king  went  into  battle  himself.  Since  the 
English  victory  on  the  field  of  Agincourt 
(1415)  it  has  not  left  the  church.  The  banner 
(in  replica)  stands  to-day  in  the  choir  behind 
and  to  the  left  of  the  high  altar.  Throughout 
the  church  are  the  tombs  of  the  Kings  of  France 
from  Dagobert  to  Louis  XVIII — twelve  cen- 
turies of  royal  bones. 

The  canonization  of  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours, 
the  soldier  saint  who  did  not  hesitate  to  di\dde 
his  cloak  with  the  shivering  poor,  received  early 
recognition  in  Paris,  where,  indeed,  he  has  al- 
ways been  popular.  In  what  was  in  Roman 
days  the  country  but  is  now  well  within  the  city 
limits  a  chapel  was  reared  in  his  honor  on  the 
spot  where  he  stopped  to  cure  a  leper  when  he 
was  on  his  way  to  Paris.  In  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury it  was  replaced  by  the  Priory  of  Saint 
Martin-des-Champs,  which  developed  into  one  of 
the  huge  monastic   establishments  which  were 


EARLIEST  PARIS  15 

each  a  little  world  in  itself  during  the  middle  ages. 
Another  chapel  to  Saint  Martin  rose  at  the  main- 
land end  of  the  bridge  leading  from  the  island 
to  the  right  bank. 

It  was  a  fair  and  prosperous  city  that  the 
world  conquerors  had  nursed  beside  the  Seine; 
it  remained  for  time  to  prove  whether  its 
five  centuries  of  growth  had  made  it  strong  and 
sound  or  whether  its  heart  was  rotten  and  its 
roots  uncertain  of  their  hold. 


CHAPTER  II 


MEROVINGIAN    PARIS 


THE  reading  of  Csesar's  "  Commentaries  " 
makes  us  know  that  the  Gauls  with 
whom  he  contended  were  worthy  oppo- 
nents, ingenious  in  planning  warfare  and  en- 
thusiastic in  fighting.  Even  the  trained  Roman 
legions  had  to  work  for  their  victories.  Grant- 
ing possible  exaggeration,  which  is  a  sore  temp- 
tation to  a  conqueror,  eager  to  magnify  the  diffi- 
culties of  his  conquest,  it  is  nevertheless  clear  that 
a  radical  change  had  transformed  these  fierce 
Gauls  and  irresistible  Romans  of  a  half  century 
before  Christ  when,  five  hundred  years  later,  a 
band  of  less  than  10,000  "  barbarians  ",  led  by 
Clovis,  swept  across  a  comparatively  unresist- 
ing Gaul. 

What  had  happened  in  Gaul  was  what  had 
happened  in  other  parts  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Money  had  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  an  in- 
satiable few.  To  supply  them  and  the  govern- 
ment every  stratum  of  society  was  squeezed  of 
its  smallest  coin,  until  good  men  of  middle-class 
position  were  wilUng  to  sell  themselves  into  slav- 
ery to  avoid  the  insistent  demands  of  self-seek- 

16 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  17 

ing  tax  collectors,  and  the  government  was 
meanly  willing  to  accept  the  sacrifice  because 
the  supply  of  slaves  was  not  being  kept  up  since 
the  victorious  eagles  had  ceased  to  perch  upon 
Rome's  banner. 

In  Paris  conditions  were  not  different  from 
those  in  other  parts  of  the  province.  The  town 
was  good  to  look  upon  with  handsome  Roman 
buildings,  and  it  was  ordered  with  due  respect 
to  the  laws  for  whose  making  Rome  had  un- 
doubted genius;  but  beneath  this  fair  outside 
there  shivered  the  soul  of  the  dependent  grown 
cowardly  from  abuse,  lacking  loyalty  for  what 
was  unworthy  of  loyalty.  The  Gauls,  who  had 
adopted  the  language  and  manners  of  their  con- 
querors, had  become  weak  from  overmuch  re- 
liance on  the  stronger  power;  the  Romans  had 
softened  during  years  of  peace.  So  it  happened 
that  when  the  barbarians  from  the  north  and 
east  threatened  Gaul  they  were  bought  off  with 
gifts  of  land,  and  when,  in  451,  Attila,  the 
Scourge  of  God,  led  into  the  north  his  fierce  and 
hideous  Huns  whose  only  joy  was  bloodshed, 
the  people  of  Paris  prepared  themselves  for 
flight  when  he  was  still  a  long  way  off. 

For  every  vital  crisis  in  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual there  is  given  a  counterbalancing  power 
of  endurance;  to  groups  this  power  is  taught 
by  the  man  or  woman  whom  the  circumstances 


18         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

develop  as  a  leader.  In  this  emergency,  when 
the  dreaded  shadow  of  the  hawklike  Hun  flut- 
tered the  citizens,  and  they  were  making  prep- 
arations for  deserting  the  town  and  taking  into 
hiding  such  of  their  goods  and  chattels  as  they 
could,  the  leader  developed  in  the  unexpected 
form  of  a  woman — Sainte  Genevieve.  Some  say 
that  Genevieve  was,  like  Jeanne  Dare  a  thou- 
sand years  later,  a  peasant  girl.  Saint  Germain 
of  Auxerre,  the  story  goes,  on  his  way  to 
*'  quenche  an  heresy e "  across  the  Channel, 
chanced  to  visit  Nanterre  where  his  prophetic 
eye  espied  the  divine  spirit  in  the  little  maid 
and  his  holy  hand  sealed  her  unto  God.  An- 
other version  insists  that  Genevieve  belonged  to 
a  prominent  family  in  Paris  and  that  her  fam- 
ily's influence  accounted  for  her  sway  over  the 
people. 

For  sway  them  she  did.  At  her  bidding  the 
women  of  the  city  fasted  and  fell  on  their  knees 
and  assailed  God  with  prayer.  Nearer  and 
nearer  came  the  foe,  and  the  unbelieving  reviled 
the  maiden;  but  Saint  Germain  reproached  them 
for  their  lack  of  faith  and  the  miracle  came  to 
pass — the  "  tyrantes  approachyd  not  parys." 

All  quarrels  were  lost  in  the  apprehension  of 
this  attack  of  a  common  enemy,  and  by  the 
united  effort  of  Gauls  and  Romans,  of  Burgun- 
dians,  Visigoths  and  Franks,  the  dreaded  Attila 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  19 

was  defeated  near  Chalons  in  a  battle  so  deter- 
mined that  the  very  ghosts  of  the  slain,  it  was 
declared,  continued  the  fight. 

Freed  of  this  menace  to  the  whole  country  the 
victorious  tribes  again  fell  to  quarreling  among 
themselves.  The  Franks  proved  sturdiest  and 
most  persistent.  Descended  from  Pharamond, 
who,  perhaps,  was  legendary,  their  king,  Me- 
rovee,  had  led  them  against  Attila.  Now  his 
son,  Childeric,  attacked  Paris.  Again  Gene- 
vieve rescued  her  townsmen  from  famine,  herself 
embarking  upon  the  Seine,  which  probably  was 
beset  by  the  enemy  along  the  banks,  and  return- 
ing with  a  boatload  of  provisions  which,  by 
miraculous  multiplication,  revictualed  the  whole 
hungry  and  despairing  garrison. 

Childeric's  son,  Clovis,  leading  about  8000 
men,  in  481  made  himself  king  of  northern 
France  with  Paris  as  his  capital,  thus  establish- 
ing the  line  of  monarchs  who  called  themselves 
Merovingians.  "  Paris,"  he  wrote  in  500  a.d., 
"is  a  brilliant  queen  over  other  cities;  a  royal 
city,  the  seat  and  head  of  the  empire  of  the 
Gauls.  With  Paris  safe  the  realm  has  nothing 
to  fear." 

Clovis  had  married  an  orthodox  Catholic  wife, 
Clotilde,  who  was  eager  for  his  conversion.  Her 
argmnents  are  said  to  have  been  far  from  gen- 
tle, but  they  seem  to  have  been  suited  to  her 


20         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

husband's  nature,  for  he  was  almost  persuaded 
to  make  the  great  change  at  the  time  of  the  birth 
of  his  eldest  child.  The  baby  died  within  the 
week,  however,  and  the  king  looked  upon  his 
loss  as  an  act  of  vengeance  on  the  part  of  his 
deserted  gods.  When  the  second  child  recovered 
from  a  serious  illness  he  was  convinced  that  Clo- 
tilde's  intercessions  had  saved  its  life,  and  again 
he  inclined  toward  Christianity.  An  incident 
determined  his  acceptance  of  his  wife's  faith.  In 
the  battle  of  Tolbiac  against  the  Germans 
Clovis  begged  the  aid  of  "  the.  God  of  the  Chris- 
tians "  to  determine  in  his  favor  a  wavering  vic- 
tory. He  won  the  fight,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe 
the  joy  of  Sainte  Genevieve,  when  the  mon- 
arch was  baptized  in  the  cathedral  at  Rheims. 
He  seems  to  have  been  of  simple  mind.  The 
fittings  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  vast  church 
touched  his  spirit  to  submission.  "  Is  not  this 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  you  promised  me?"  he 
asked  of  the  bishop.  Again,  when  he  listened  to 
the  story  of  the  crucifixion,  he  is  said  to  have 
cried  with  an  elemental  desire  for  vengeance, 
"  Oh,  had  I  been  there  with  my  Franks  I  would 
have  avenged  the  Christ!  " 

Sainte  Genevieve  died  in  509  and  the  citizens 
of  grateful  Paris  over  which  she  had  watched  in 
wise  tenderness  for  fourscore  years,  made  her 
their  patron  saint.    The  hill  that  had  been  known 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  21 

as  Mons  Lucotetius  they  called  Mont  Sainte 
Genevieve,  and  on  it  they  built  a  chapel  to  honor 
and  protect  her  grave.  Clovis  replaced  the  little 
oratory  by  a  church  as  long  as  the  mighty  swing 
of  his  battle-axe,  dedicated  to  Saint  Peter  and 
Saint  Paul  and  serving  as  the  abbey  church  of  a 
religious  establishment  which  bore  Sainte  Gene- 
vieve's name.  Except  for  a  dormitory  and  re- 
fectory this  monastery  was  torn  down  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eighteenth  century  to  give  place  to  a 
new  church  of  Sainte  Genevieve,  secularized  to- 
day and  known  as  the  Pantheon.  The  abbey 
church,  built  and  rebuilt,  was  destroyed  during 
the  Revolution,  the  tower  (called  the  Tower  of 
Clovis,  but  really  belonging  to  a  later  period) 
being  all  that  is  left  of  these  historic  structures. 
The  reaction  against  religion  in  those  turbulent 
revolutionary  years  made  it  no  sacrilege  to  burn 
the  good  saint's  bones  on  the  Greve,  but  some  of 
the  devoted  preserved  the  ashes  which  rest  now  in 
a  stone  sarcophagus,  elaborately  canopied,  in  the 
neighboring  church  of  Saint  Etienne-du-Mont 
built  in  the  twelfth  century  as  a  church  for  the 
dependents  of  the  Abbey. 

The  comparatively  peaceful  and  prosperous 
Roman  period  of  five  hundred  years  was  followed 
by  five  centuries  of  strife  and  disaster  at  the 
hands  of  the  northern  tribes.  The  Roman  Em- 
pire had  found  in  Gaul  the  last  stronghold  of  its 


22         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

civilization.  There  were  large  cities,  fine  build- 
ings, public  utilities,  institutions  of  learning. 
To  the  barbarians,  a  youthful  race  at  the  destruc- 
tive stage,  these  represented  but  so  many  things 
to  be  destroyed.  Terrible  and  repeated  on- 
slaughts ousted  the  Romans,  and  then  the  victors 
became  embroiled  with  new  tribes  who  sought 
to  drive  them  out.  Palaces  and  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, fields  and  vineyards  were  laid  waste. 
Paris,  the  stronghold  of  the  early  Merovingians, 
suffered  less  than  the  other  important  towns  of 
Gaul,  but  the  Franks  had  no  standards  of  fair 
living,  and  they  did  not  build  up  where  time  or 
their  own  ferocity  had  cast  down.  Tottering 
walls  were  bolstered  with  rough  buttresses,  new 
dwellings  were  square  hovels  of  the  same  heavy 
stonework,  farming  languished,  commerce  died. 
The  successors  of  Clovis  for  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  tricked  their  wives,  murdered  their 
rivals,  and  assassinated  their  nearest  of  kin  if 
they  stood  in  their  way.  Clovis  divided  his  king- 
dom among  his  four  sons.  One  of  them  was 
killed  in  battle  soon  after  and  left  his  three  chil- 
dren to  the  care  of  their  grandmother,  Clotilde, 
with  whom  they  lived  in  the  great  palace  on  the 
left  bank.  Just  like  the  wicked  uncles  in  many 
a  fairy  tale  two  of  Clovis's  surviving  sons  ob- 
tained possession  of  the  little  boys  by  stratagem 
and  took  them  away  to  the  palace  on  the  Cite. 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  23 

Then  they  sent  to  Clotilde  a  messenger  who  bade 
her  choose  between  the  shears  and  the  sword — 
the  shears  which  should  chp  the  children's  locks 
and  thereby  sever  their  claims  to  the  throne  and 
send  them  into  the  Church,  and  the  sword  of 
death.  In  a  passion  of  indignation  Clotilde  ex- 
claimed that  she  would  rather  see  them  dead 
than  shorn.  Claiming  this  cry  as  their  authori- 
zation the  two  men  set  about  the  murder  of  their 
nephews.  Childebert,  king  of  Paris,  proved 
somewhat  less  brutal  than  his  brother  (he  loved 
flowers  enough  to  plant  a  garden  at  the  Roman 
palace)  and  would  have  saved  the  children — 
they  were  hardly  more  than  babies — but  Clotaire 
stabbed  two  of  them  with  his  own  hand.  Then 
lie  married  their  mother.  The  third  boy  escaped, 
came  imder  the  tutelage  of  Saint  Severin  and  en- 
tered a  Benedictine  monastery.  When  he  was  a 
man  grown  he  established  a  religious  house  at  a 
spot  a  few  miles  from  Paris  called  Saint 
Cloud  from  his  name,  Clodoald.  Here,  on  a 
height  above  the  river,  stood  the  chateau  where 
Napoleon  effected  the  coup  d'  etat  that  made  him 
First  Consul,  and  whence  Charles  X  issued  the 
decrees  that  brought  about  the  Revolution  of 
1830.  The  building  was  burned  during  the 
troubles  of  1870,  but  the  park  with  its  fine  alUes 
of  trees  and  its  fountains  is  one  of  the  play- 
grounds of  modern  Paris. 


24         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Clotaire  had  done  away  with  the  possible 
rivahy  of  his  nephews  but  he  had  a  bitter  enemy 
in  his  brother  Thierry.  This  amiable  relative 
plotted  his  assassination.  He  invited  him  to  a 
feast  and  stationed  his  desperadoes  behind  a  cur- 
tain whence  they  should  spring  out  upon  their 
victim.  Some  friend  of  Clotaire's,  chancing  to 
pass  by,  noticed  below  this  apparently  innocent 
screen  a  row  of  feet  unaccounted  for,  and  guessed 
the  project  of  their  owners.  Warned  of  his 
danger  Clotaire  came  amply  guarded  and  caused 
his  brother  extreme  annoyance  by  his  evident 
knowledge  of  his  plan  and  its  consequent  frustra- 
tion. Thierry  gave  him  a  silver  dish  by  way  of 
souvenir  of  this  pleasant  occasion,  but  he  re- 
pented him  of  this  generosity  as  soon  as  Clotaire 
was  out  of  sight  and  sent  his  son  to  replevin  the 
gift. 

One  of  Clotaire's  sons,  Chilperic  I  (who  died 
in  584)  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  son 
of  the  king  of  the  Visigoths  in  Spain.  A  great 
train  came  to  Paris  to  fetch  the  bride,  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  these  rough  Goths  and  the  thought 
of  her  approaching  separation  from  her  parents 
and  friends  so  afflicted  the  young  girl  that  her 
father  determined  to  secure  companionship  for 
her.  He  commanded  some  chosen  young  peo- 
ple— girls  and  youths  of  her  own  age — and  also 
some  entire  families  to  go  with  her  into  Spain. 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  25 

So  great  was  the  opposition  to  this  high-handed 
proceeding  that  it  became  necessary  forcibly  to 
seize  the  iinwiUing  recipients  of  the  honor  in 
order  to  be  sure  of  their  presence  when  the  ex- 
pedition started.  Some  of  those  who  were  to 
be  separated  from  their  kindred  committed  sui- 
cide in  despair  over  their  banishment.  "  In  Paris 
there  reigned  a  desolation  like  Egj^pt,"  says 
sympathetic  Gregory  of  Tours.  Robbed  of  their 
children  the  rich  Parisians  found  the  coimtry 
also  robbed  of  gold  and  silver  vessels  and  of 
handsome  raiment,  for  the  queen  heaped  into  her 
daughter's  bridal  coffers  the  treasures  that  she 
had  obtained  from  the  nobles  in  the  course  of 
years  under  the  guise  of  revenue.  So  loath  were 
the  princess's  attendants  to  follow  her  fortunes 
and  so  lacking  were  they  in  loyalty  that  her 
retinue  on  arriving  in  Spain  was  lessened  not 
only  by  the  daily  desertions  of  all  who  could 
manage  to  escape,  but  by  the  defection  in  a  body 
of  no  less  than  fifty  men. 

Fredegonde,  the  bride's  mother,  was  a  woman 
of  forceful  will  and  of  unbridled  passions.  The 
list  of  deaths  for  which  she  was  responsible  reads 
like  a  roster  of  the  royal  family.  Although  of  low 
birth  she  attracted  the  attention  of  the  king, 
Chilperic,  and  induced  him  to  put  aside  his  wife, 
Audovere.  Chilperic  then  married  Galsuinthe, 
sister  of  Brunehaut,  wife  of  his  brother  Sigebert. 


26         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Fredegonde  soon  compassed  Galsuinthe's  death 
and  then  achieved  her  ambition  and  became  queen 
herself.  Brunehaut  naturally  was  indignant  as 
well  as  sorrowful  at  her  sister's  death,  clearly  the 
work  of  an  assassin.  She  urged  her  husband  to 
vengeance  and  he  declared  war  against  Chil- 
peric.  His  activity  was  not  of  long  duration, 
however,  for  he,  too,  fell  a  victim  to  Fredegonde' s 
ferocity.  Brunehaut  saved  her  life  only  by 
claiming  the  asylum  of  the  cathedral  of  Paris. 
Not  long  after  she  married  Merovee,  a  son  of 
Chilperic  and  Audovere.  Then  Fredegonde 
disposed  of  her  by  inducing  Sigebert's  subjects 
to  claim  their  queen  and  by  insisting  that  Chil- 
peric should  deliver  her  over  to  them.  Merovee, 
at  her  command,  was  shorn  and  imprisoned  and 
hounded  until  he  sought  death  at  the  hands  of  a 
servant.  His  brother  was  stabbed.  Their 
mother,  Audovere,  was  not  safe  even  in  the 
cloister,  for  she  was  murdered  in  her  retreat. 
Chilperic  himself  was  the  next  victim,  killed  by 
a  knife-thrust  as  he  returned  from  the  chase. 
He  was  succeeded  by  an  infant  son,  Clotaire  II 
(613-628),  and  Fredegonde  spent  the  rest  of  her 
life  in  alternations  of  affectionately  fierce  de- 
votion to  his  interests  and  in  scheming  against 
the  authority  of  his  guardians. 

Brunehaut  outlived  her  enemy,  Fredegonde, 
by  many  years  and  finally  met  her  death  at  the 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  27 

order  of  Fredegonde's  son.  After  a  stormy 
career  during  which  she  compassed  much  good 
for  the  subjects  of  her  son  and  grandsons  and 
earned  her  share  of  hatred  from  the  nobles  whom 
she  opposed,  she  was  captured  by  Clotaire.  Her 
extreme  age — she  was  eighty — did  not  save  her 
from  a  brutal  end.  She  was  stripped  and  dis- 
played to  his  army,  then  bound  by  a  foot,  an 
arm  and  her  hair  to  a  wild  horse  which  kicked 
her  to  death.  This  hideous  deed  was  done  in 
Paris  where  now  the  rue  Saint  Honore  crosses 
the  rue  de  I'Arbre  Sec,  and  not  far  from  the 
site  of  the  house  wherein  Admiral  Coligny  was 
slain,  the  first  victim  of  the  Massacre  of  Saint 
Bartholomew. 

Of  all  the  Merovingian  kings  only  Dagobert  I 
(628-638),  son  of  Clotaire  II,  proved  himself  a 
man  of  strength,  incongruously  fighting  and 
praying,  massacring  captives  and  building 
churches,  living  a  vicious  life  in  private  and  gov- 
erning with  justice  and  intelligence.  "  Great 
king  Dagobert "  he  was  called,  and  he  was  re- 
garded impartially  as  a  "  jolly  good  fellow  "  and 
as  a  saint.  He  lived  in  the  palace  on  the  Cite, 
and  he  rebuilt  the  abbey  of  Saint  Denis,  invited 
distant  merchants  to  visit  Gaul,  dealt  out  justice 
to  poor  and  rich  alike  in  unconventional  and 
hearty  fashion,  and  hammered  his  enemies  with 
the  same  vigor  and  enthusiasm. 


28         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

In  the  century  following  his  the  Merovingian 
line  degenerated  into  a  race  of  "  Rois  Faineants  " 
("Do-nothing  Kings")*  dissolute,  lazy,  leaving 
the  task  of  government  to  their  Mayors  of  the 
Palace  while  they  rolled  slothfully  in  ox-carts 
from  the  debaucheries  of  one  country  house  to 
the  coarse  pleasures  of  another. 

The  only  upbuilding  accomplished  during  the 
Merovingian  two  centuries  and  a  half  was  the  es- 
tablishment of  churches  and  religious  houses. 
The  Frank  was  not  aggressive  in  the  less  active 
relations  of  his  duties  as  a  victor.  He  was  con- 
tent to  learn  the  language  of  the  conquered  race 
and  the  mysticism  of  religion  spoke  to  him  win- 
ningly.  Throughout  the  years  when  nothing 
that  fell  was  restored  and  the  hand  was  busy 
striking,  at  least  one  kind  of  constructive  impulse 
was  manifest  when  Clovis  built  the  church  in 
which  he  was  buried  on  Mons  Lucotetius,  when 
his  son,  Childebert,  reared  an  abbey  on  the  south 
bank  to  protect  the  tunic  of  Saint  Vincent,  when 
on  the  north  bank  a  chui'ch  was  dedicated  to  the 
same  saint  and  another  to  Saint  Laurent,  while 
the  south  side  was  further  enriched  by  edifices 
sacred  to  Saint  Julien  and  to  Saint  Severin,  the 
tutor  of  Clodoald.  It  is  not  the  original  build- 
ings that  we  see  on  these  sites  to-day,  but  it 
is  a  not  uninteresting  phase  of  the  French  spirit 
that  has  reared  one  structure  after  another  upon 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  29 

ground  once  consecrated,  so  that  a  church  stands 
to-day  where  a  church  stood  fifteen  hundred 
years  ago. 

The  story  of  the  foundation  of  the  church  of 
Saint  Vincent  is  interesting  from  several  points 
of  view.  Clovis  divided  his  possessions  among 
his  four  sons,  giving  Paris  to  Childebert.  Chil- 
debert  had  no  notion  of  staying  cooped  up  in  this 
northern  town,  and  he  went  as  far  afield  as  Sara- 
gossa  in  search  of  war.  During  the  course  of  his 
siege  of  that  city  he  beheld  its  citizens  march- 
ing about  bearing  what  seemed  to  be  a  relic 
of  especial  sanctity.  It  proved  to  be  the  cloak  of 
Saint  Vincent  in  which  they  were  trusting  to 
save  them  from  their  assailants.  It  did  not  be- 
tray their  trust,  for  Childebert  became  filled  with 
eagerness  to  possess  a  relic  which  could  inspire 
such  confidence,  and  offered  to  raise  the  siege  if 
they  would  give  him  the  tunic.  When  he  re- 
turned to  Paris  Saint  Germain  of  Autun  per- 
suaded him  to  build  a  church  for  its  protection 
and  to  establish  an  abbey  whose  members  should 
make  it  their  first  duty  to  pay  honor  to  the  relic. 
This  abbey  was  called  later  Saint  Germain-des- 
Pres,  the  name  which  the  abbey  church  bears  to- 
day. It  stands  no  longer  in  the  meadows,  but 
raises  its  square  Merovingian  tower  above  one 
of  the  busiest  parts  of  Paris.  Except  for  this 
tower  the  church  was  burned  in  the  ninth  cen- 


30  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

tury,  but  it  was  rebuilt  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centm-ies  and  the  nave  with  its  seini-circular 
arches  is  one  of  the  few  remaining  examples  in 
the  city  of  the  Romanesque  architecture  of 
which  this  was  a  characteristic.  The  choir  shows 
in  its  arches  and  windows  the  hand  of  a  later 
builder  who  was  inclining  toward  the  pointed 
Gothic. 

The  Merovingian  kings  were  buried  here. 
After  the  founding  of  Saint  Denis  the  royal  re- 
mains were  removed  to  that  abbey  church. 

The  north  bank  church  of  Saint  Vincent  also 
received  the  name  of  Saint  Germain,  but  this 
was  to  honor  Saint  Germain  I'Auxerrois,  the 
friend  of  Sainte  Genevieve.  This  early  edifice 
also  was  destroyed,  but  was  rebuilt  by  Robert 
the  Pious,  and  the  later  building  held  the  bell 
which  rang  for  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholo- 
mew a  thousand  years  later. 

These  churches  and  monasteries  were  the 
means  of  preserving  whatever  of  learning  per- 
sisted thi'ough  this  period  of  return  to  primitive 
living.  Every  one  of  them  was  a  center  of  infor- 
mation, and  every  one  of  them  taught  freely 
what  it  knew  of  agriculture  and  of  the  homely 
arts.  Further  the  Church  was  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic. A  bishop's  miter  lay  in  every  student's 
portfolio,  as  a  marshal's  baton  hid  in  the  knap- 
sack of  each  one  of  Napoleon's  soldiers. 


SAINT    GERMAIN     DES     PRES. 


MEROVINGIAN  PARIS  31 

Of  larger  government,  however,  the  bishops 
had  small  knowledge,  and  Paris,  left  to  their 
guidance  while  the  kings  roamed  abroad,  lost 
her  high  prestige.  She  did  not  regain  it  under 
the  next  dynasty. 


CHAPTER  III 


CARLOVINGIAN   PARIS 


WHILE  the  nominal  kings  were  losing 
their  powers  thi'ough  inaction,  activity 
was  developing  a  race  of  strong  rulers 
in  the  Mayors  of  the  Palace — originally  the  royal 
stewards.  Pepin  d'Heristal  (who  died  in  714) 
is  accounted  the  founder  of  the  family  which  was 
to  oust  the  Sluggard  Kings  from  the  throne  that 
they  disgraced.  Pepin's  son,  Charles  Martel — 
the  Hammer — (715-741)  stayed  the  advance  of 
the  Saracens  in  the  fiercely  fought  battle  at 
Tours  where  he  earned  not  only  his  nickname 
but  the  gratitude  of  the  Christian  world,  threat- 
ened by  the  Mohammedan  invasion.  Charles's 
son,  Pepin  le  Bref  (752-768),  thought  that  the 
time  had  come  when  the  achievements  of  the 
Mayors  of  the  Palace  should  receive  recogni- 
tion— when  the  king  in  fact  should  be  the  king 
in  name.  He  appealed  to  Pope  Zachary  to 
sanction  his  taking  the  title.  The  pope  was  glad 
of  the  support  of  the  Franks,  and  approved. 
Childeric  III  became  the  last  of  the  Meroving- 
ian line  when  he  was  shorn  of  the  long  locks 
which  symbolized  his  regal  strength,  and  Pepin, 

32 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  33 

anointed  king  in  his  stead,  became  the  first  of 
those  monarchs  who  have  been  called  Carol- 
ingians  or  Carlovingians  from  the  name  of  his 
son,  Charlemagne  ( Carolus  Magnus,  Charles  the 
Great. ) 

Pepin  was  anointed  first  at  Soissons  by  the 
Bishop  of  Mayence  who  used  in  the  ceremony 
the  flask  from  which  Saint  Remi  had  anointed 
Clovis.  Later  the  new  king  was  anointed 
again,  this  time  at  Saint  Denis,  by  Zachary's 
successor,  Stephen  III,  who  was  the  first  pope 
to  visit  Paris.  The  Frankish  nobles  paid  for  the 
honor  to  their  city  by  being  forced  by  the  Holy 
Father  to  swear  allegiance  to  Pepin  and  his  sons. 

There  was  much  in  Paris  to  interest  the  pope. 
The  Cite  was  rich  in  churches  and  religious  es- 
tablishments. The  cathedral  now  was  a  church 
dedicated  to  Notre  Dame,  built  by  Childe- 
bert  in  gratitude  for  a  recovery  from  illness.  It 
stood  beside  the  one-time  cathedral  dedicated  to 
Saint  Etienne;  smaller  churches  honored  Saint 
Gervais,  Saint  Nicholas  and  Saint  Michel. 
Eloy,  the  jovial  goldsmith  saint,  was  the  pro- 
tector of  a  convent  raised  to  his  name.  Saint 
Landry,  a  bishop  of  Paris  in  the  seventh  century, 
had  founded  a  hospital  on  the  very  spot  where 
Saint  Louis  and  his  mother,  Blanche  of  Castile, 
were  to  build  the  Hotel  Dieu  in  the  thirteenth 
century,    and    but    the    width    of    the    present 


84  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

square  from  the  new  Hotel  Dieu,  built  since  the 
Third  Republic  came  into  being.  Together  with 
religion  and  good  works  justice  held  sway  on  the 
island.  In  the  Roman  palace  judges  interpreted 
the  laws  gathered  and  summarized  by  Dagobert. 
In  a  building  near  by  whose  site  is  covered  by 
the  enlarged  palace  was  housed  the  first  organ 
known  in  Europe,  a  gift  to  Pepin.  So  mysteri- 
ous seemed  its  working  that  a  woman  is  said  to 
have  fallen  dead  when  she  heard  it. 

On  the  Cite  dwelt  the  merchants,  too,  for  the 
right  bank  of  the  river  had  not  yet  become  the 
business  section  of  Paris,  although  the  Greve  al- 
ways was  busy  with  the  loading  and  unloading 
of  boats.  The  shops  in  the  Cite  held  stocks  of 
rich  stuffs  and  of  gold  and  silver  vessels  and  or- 
naments, chiefly  of  home  manufacture,  for  the 
trade  that  had  grown  up  in  Gallo-Roman  days 
was  rapidly  dying  out  in  the  unsympathetic  at- 
mosphere of  constant  strife. 

Back  from  the  river  on  the  right  bank  were 
monasteries  in  whose  great  size  the  papal  visitor 
must  have  delighted  as  he  did  in  the  establishment 
dedicated  to  the  patron  saint  of  Paris  on  the  hill 
now  called  by  her  name,  the  Mont  Sainte  Gene- 
vieve, and  in  the  abbey  of  Saint  Germain-des- 
Pres,  rich  in  lands  and  serfs  and  so  gorgeous 
with  Spanish  booty  that  its  church  was  called 
Saint  Germain-le-Dore — The  Gilded. 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  35 

Charleiuagne  (768-814),  son  of  Pepin  le  Brcf, 
saw  a  splendid  vision  of  a  united  Gaul,  but  his 
plan  was  not  suited  to  a  period  when  the  German 
belief  in  the  might  of  the  strong-armed  individ- 
ual was  laying  the  foundations  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem. He  himself  was  German  and  established 
his  capital  not  at  Paris,  but  nearer  the  German 
boundary,  where  he  felt  more  at  home.  He 
visited  Paris,  however,  lending  the  splendor  of 
his  presence  to  the  services  of  dedication  which 
marked  the  completion  of  the  church  of  Saint 
Denis.  Under  the  emperor's  direction  his  ad- 
viser, Alcuin  of  York,  established  in  Paris  the 
first  of  those  schools  which  have  made  the  city 
through  the  centuries  one  of  the  chief  educa- 
tional centers  of  the  world.  Charlemagne  him- 
self never  learned  to  write,  it  is  said,  but  his  in- 
telligence appreciated  the  value  of  learning  and 
he  first  offered  to  the  students  of  Europe  the 
hospitality  which  Paris  has  given  them  with  the 
utmost  generosity  ever  since.  To-day  foreign 
students  are  admitted  to  the  University  of 
France  on  exactly  the  same  terms  as  native 
students. 

An  equestrian  statue  of  the  Emperor,  his  horse 
led  by  Roland  and  Oliver,  stands  before  the 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame. 

Not  only  was  Charlemagne's  kingdom  divided 
after  his  death,  but  his  strength  as  well  seemed 


36  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

to  have  shared  the  shattering.  His  descendants 
were  men  of  small  force.  Louis  le  Debonnaire, 
(814-840)  succeeded  the  great  king.  Louis' 
three  sons,  Lothaire,  Louis,  and  Charles  the 
Bald  divided  the  vast  possessions  into  three  parts. 

The  oath  by  which  Louis  pledged  himself  to 
support  Charles  against  Lothair  has  an  especial 
interest  for  scholars  because  it  is  the  oldest  known 
example  of  the  Romance  tongue  which  succeeded 
the  Low  Latin  of  the  Gallo-Romans.  The  oath 
was  given  at  Strasburg,  the  armies  of  Louis  and 
Charles  witnessing,  in  March,  842. 

The  weakness  of  Charlemagne's  successors 
helped  the  growth  in  power  of  the  individual 
nobles.  The  feudal  system  developed  without 
check.  Families  made  themselves  great  by  their 
fighting  strength.  Dukes  and  counts  held  sway 
without  hindrance  in  their  own  dominions.  Much 
as  this  added  to  their  importance  it  was  a  dis- 
advantage to  them  when  there  was  need  for  con- 
certed action  against  an  enemy.  Once  Charle- 
magne saw  the  piratical  crafts  of  the  Northmen 
enter  one  of  his  harbors  and  he  prophesied  that 
they  would  bring  misfortune  to  his  people  when 
he  was  no  longer  living  to  guard  them.  His 
prophecy  came  true,  and  when  the  sea  robbers 
penetrated  into  the  country  by  way  of  the  big 
northern  rivers  and  attacked  the  cities  on  the 
Seine  and  the  Loire,  sacking  the  churches  and 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  37 

carrying  away  the  riches  of  the  monasteries,  there 
was  no  concerted  action  among  the  nobles,  and 
destruction  and  loss  went  on  little  hindered  by 
the  inadequate  efforts  of  this  or  that  feudal  lord. 
Paris  itself  was  pillaged  more  than  once,  and  the 
abbeys  of  Saint  Denis  and  Saint  Germain-des- 
Pres  paid  imwilling  tribute  to  the  boldness  of 
the  invaders. 

Charlemagne's  grandsons  were  not  of  the  met- 
tle to  deal  sharply  with  the  Northmen.  Charles 
the  Bald  preferred  diplomacy  to  fighting.  His 
nephew,  Charles  the  Fat,  once  more  united  the 
great  king's  possessions,  but  he  was  no  warrior 
and  when  the  terrible  foes  appeared  in  the  Seine 
he  was  not  ashamed  to  buy  them  off.  Again  and 
again  they  came,  each  time  ravaging  more 
fiercely,  each  time  approaching  nearer  and  nearer 
to  Paris  which  they  now  threatened  to  destroy. 
It  was  in  885  that  Rollo  or  Rolf,  called  the  Gang- 
er or  Walker,  because  he  was  so  huge  that  no 
horse  could  carry  him,  led  a  persistent  band  be- 
fore whom  the  Parisians  abandoned  their  suburbs 
and  withdrew  behind  the  walls  of  the  Cite.  They 
fortified  the  bridges  leading  to  the  northern  and 
southern  banks,  and  under  their  protection  sus- 
tained a  siege  of  a  year  and  a  half.  Abbo,  one 
of  the  monks  of  the  monastery  of  Saint  Germain- 
des-Pres,  has  told  us  about  it  in  a  narrative 
poem  of  some  1,200  lines.    It  all  sounds  as  if  the 


38  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

days  of  Caesar  had  come  again.  The  Northmen 
used  machines  for  hurling  weapons  and  fireballs 
into  the  city,  and  floated  fireboats  down  the  river 
to  destroy  the  bridges.  The  Parisians  retahated 
from  the  wall  and  the  towers.  The  leaders  were 
Eudes,  count  of  Paris  and  of  the  district  around 
the  city,  and  Gozlin,  bishop  of  Paris,  both  of 
whom  fought  manfully,  and  also  took  intelligent 
care  to  foster  the  courage  of  their  people.  Not 
a  day  passed  without  fighting,  and  although  suc- 
cess usually  rested  with  the  practised  Northmen 
the  Parisians  did  not  become  discouraged  or  de- 
moralized. The  most  dramatic  episode  of  the 
siege  came  at  a  time  when  the  swollen  Seine 
swept  away  the  Petit  Pont  leading  to  the  south- 
ern bank,  and  cut  off  fram  their  friends  the  de- 
fenders of  the  Petit  Chatelet  on  the  mainland. 
The  garrison  numbered  but  a  dozen  men  and  they 
fought  with  superb  courage  mitil  every  one  of 
them  was  killed. 

Abbo's  story  tells  of  sorties  to  secure  food,  of 
negotiations  that  fell  through,  of  a  journey  made 
by  Eudes  to  seek  help  from  the  Emperor  and  of 
the  suspicion  of  treachery  that  his  long  absence 
cast  upon  him  until  he  banished  it  by  cutting  his 
way  through  his  foes  into  the  town  again.  His 
return  heartened  the  besieged,  but  the  besiegers 
were  not  disheartened.  Hot  weather  lowered 
the  Seine  and  an  attacking  party  found  footing 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  39 

outside  the  walls  of  the  island  and  built  a  fire 
against  one  of  the  gates.  Then  in  truth  the  very 
saints  were  called  on  to  give  aid.  Holy  Sainte 
Genevieve's  body  had  been  in  some  way  brought 
into  the  Cite  from  its  resting  place  on  the  south- 
ern hill,  and  now  it  was  carried  about  the  town 
that  she  had  succored  three  centuries  before. 
The  trusting  declared  that  they  saw  Saint  Ger- 
main in  spirit-guise  upon  the  wall  encouraging 
the  defenders. 

At  last  Charles  appeared  upon  the  hill  of 
JNIontmartre,  but  wliile  the  plucky  fighters  in  the 
beleaguered  city  were  preparing  to  go  forth  to 
meet  him  they  learned  that  once  again  he  had 
bought  off  the  invading  army. 

The  fat  king  was  deposed  and  died  soon  after 
and  again  the  regal  possessions  were  divided. 
Paris  and  its  surroundings,  the  lie  de  France, 
fell  (887)  to  Eudes,  the  candidate  of  a  party  of 
independent  nobles  who  admired  his  fine  work  in 
the  defense  of  the  city. 

The  end  of  the  siege  did  not  mean  the  end  of 
the  new  king's  troubles  with  Rollo.  That  sturdy 
opponent  never  ceased  his  fighting  though  his 
invasions  became  in  time  not  ravages  but  reason- 
ably ordered  campaigns,  since  he  did  not  destroy 
what  he  gained,  and  sometimes  even  repaired  the 
damage  he  had  done.  Fortune  was  impartial. 
Now  Rollo  defeated  Eudes,  now  Eudes  defeated 


40  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Rollo.  The  king's  most  famous  success  was  at 
Montfaucon,  then  northeast  of  Paris,  but  now 
within  the  fortifications.  For  five  hundred  years 
before  the  Revolution  there  stood  on  this  spot  a 
gibbet  three  stories  high  on  which  one  hundred 
and  twenty  criminals  could  be  hung  at  once.  The 
man  who  built  it  was  one  of  its  victims. 

Loyalty  to  the  royal  family  led  to  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Carlovingian  line  after  the  death  of 
Eudes.  Charles,  called  the  Simple,  a  youth  of 
nineteen,  was  set  upon  the  throne  and  found  him- 
self faced  at  once  by  the  problem  of  crushing  or 
checking  the  perpetual  invasion.  When  no  solu- 
tion had  been  found  after  thirteen  years  the  king 
attempted  conciliation.  He  offered  Rollo  his 
daughter  in  marriage  and  a  considerable  piece  of 
territory  provided  that  the  rover  should  acknowl- 
edge himself  Charles's  vassal  and  should  become 
a  Christian.  Rollo  considered  this  proposition 
for  a  period  of  three  months  and  then  consented 
to  parley  with  the  king  over  details.  They  went 
with  their  followers  to  a  town  not  far  from  Paris 
where  they  ranged  themselves  on  opposite  sides 
of  a  stream  and  communicated  by  messenger. 
Rollo  seems  to  have  made  no  difficulty  on  the 
subject  of  his  bride  or  of  his  religion,  but  he  was 
fastidious  as  to  the  land  he  should  receive.  No 
one  knew  better  than  he  the  character  and  condi- 
tion of  northern  France,  and  he  rejected  one  pro- 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  41 

posed  section  after  another  on  the  plea  of  its  be- 
ing too  swampy  or  too  close  to  the  sea  or — 
brazenly  enough — too  seriously  hurt  by  the 
harrying  of  the  Northmen!  When  at  last  he 
deigned  to  accept  what  came  to  be  called  Nor- 
mandy a  further  difficulty  arose  because  he  re- 
fused to  acknowledge  liis  vassalship  by  kneeling 
before  the  king  and  kissing  his  foot.  He  had 
never  bent  the  knee  to  any  one,  he  said,  and  he 
never  would.  He  was  willing  to  do  it  vicari- 
ously, however,  and  he  directed  one  of  his  fol- 
lowers to  offer  the  feudal  salute.  But  his  proxy 
had  been  trained  in  the  same  school.  Stooping 
suddenly  he  seized  Charles's  foot  and  raised  it  to 
his  lips,  oversetting  the  king  and  provoking 
bursts  of  laughter  from  the  Northmen  and  of 
indignation  from  the  Franks. 

Charles  found  it  prudent  to  swallow  his  rage 
and  he  was  rewarded  by  gaining  an  admirable 
colony.  The  Northmen  or  Normans  became  ex- 
cellent settlers  and  their  coming  invigorated  a 
people  whose  feeble  monarchs  had  represented 
only  too  well  their  own  characteristics.  It  was 
largely  through  this  vigorous  northern  influence 
that,  when  a  break  occurred  in  the  Carlovingian 
line,  Hugh  Capet,  duke  of  France  and  count  of 
Paris,  a  descendant  of  Eudes'  brother  Robert, 
was  elevated  (987)  by  the  barons  to  the  throne 
which  his  descendants  in  the  direct  line  occupied 


42  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

for  some  three  hundred  years.  The  family  never 
has  died  out.  Louis  XVI  in  prison  was  called 
"  Citizen  Capet; "  the  duke  of  Orleans,  pre- 
tender to  the  non-existent  French  throne,  is  a 
twentieth  century  representative. 

The  tenth  century  found  Paris  reduced  to 
practically  its  size  when  Caesar  sent  Labienus  to 
attack  it.  The  Northmen  had  destroyed  the  fau- 
bourgs on  the  once  flourishing  left  bank,  and  it 
was  only  by  degrees  that  the  abbeys  of  Sainte 
Genevieve  and  of  Saint  Germain-des-Pres  re- 
placed their  buildings  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
population  slowly  growing  around  them  once 
more. 

The  northern  bank  was  even  more  forlorn, 
with  but  a  chapel  or  two  to  lighten  its  waste 
places,  and  an  insignificant  blockhouse,  perhaps 
built  by  the  Nortliinen,  where  to-day  the  Louvre 
stands  magnificent. 

Packed  into  the  Cite  were  the  houses  and  the 
public  buildings  of  such  population  as  the  wars 
had  left.  A  street  led  across  the  island  from 
north  to  south,  connecting  the  two  bridges;  an- 
other from  east  to  west  between  the  cathedral 
and  the  palace.  Around  the  open  square  made 
by  their  crossing  clustered  the  shops  and  mar- 
kets. Wooden  dwellings  filled  every  alley  and 
even  crouched  against  the  huge  encircling  wall. 
Nobles  in  armor,  their  servitors  in  leather,  ec- 


CARLOVINGIAN  PARIS  43 

clesiastics  with  mail  beneath  their  robes,  mer- 
chants in  more  peaceful  guise,  peasants  in  walk- 
ing trim — all  these  carried  on  the  e very-day  life 
of  this  city  which  is  seemingly  immortal  since 
fire  and  sword  and  flood  have  laid  it  low  re- 
peatedly but  only  for  such  brief  time  as  it  takes 
for  it  to  grow  again. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PARIS    OF   THE   EARLY    CAPETIANS 

NEVER  in  all  its  many  troubled  days  has 
France  been  more  in  need  of  a  wise  head 
and  a  steady  hand  than  it  was  when  in 
987  the  lords  gave  to  Hugh  Capet  the  name  of 
King  of  France.  He  was  already  Count  of 
Paris  and  Duke  of  France,  that  is,  of  the  lie  de 
France,  the  district  around  Paris.  When  he 
was  chosen  king  the  title  meant  only  that  a  few 
powerful  nobles  promised  him  their  fidelity. 
Back  of  this  insignificant  fact,  however,  loomed 
the  idea  of  kingship  remembered  from  the 
Roman  days  of  centralized  power.  Combined 
with  this  idea  was  the  governing  principle  of  the 
new  feudalism  which  emphasized  the  duty  of 
every  man  to  be  loyal  to  his  superior  with  obe- 
dience and  support,  to  his  inferior  with  protec- 
tion. Thus  the  title  of  king  meant  much  or 
little  in  proportion  as  the  holders  of  great  pos- 
sessions lived  up  to  their  oaths  of  allegiance. 
The  weakness  of  the  royal  person  was  the 
foundation  weakness  of  the  feudal  system  which 

44 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       45 


France  at  Time  of  Hugh  Capet. 

(At  the  dates  indicated  the  provinces  came  under  the  French  crown) 


46  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

nominally  linked  the  whole  of  society  in  an  in- 
ter-dependent chain,  but  really  fostered  the 
strength  of  the  individual. 

Under  such  conditions  it  was  only  the  man  of 
unusual  force  who  could  maintain  himself  at  a 
pitch  of  power  greater  than  that  of  subordinates 
who  were  his  equals  in  all  but  name.  Hugh 
Capet  proved  himself  such  a  man,  fighting,  ca- 
joling, buying  his  way  through  a  reign  of  con- 
stant disturbance,  but  strong  enough  at  its  end 
to  leave  his  crown  to  his  son  without  opposition 
from  the  nobles. 

A  medieval  tradition  had  it  that  Hugh  was 
the  son  of  a  butcher  of  Paris.  A  fourteenth 
century  chanson  called  "  Hugh  the  Butcher " 
encouraged  the  bourgeois  to  believe  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  like  elevation.  Dante  refers  to  the 
story  in  the  "  Divine  Comedy."  He  hears  a 
shade  on  the  Fifth  Ledge  of  Purgatory  say:  "  I 
was  the  root  of  the  evil  plant  which  so  over- 
shadows all  the  Christian  land  that  good  fruit  is 
rarely  plucked  therefrom.  .  .  .  Yonder  I  was 
called  Hugh  Capet:  of  me  are  born  the  Philips 
and  the  Lewises  by  whom  of  late  times  France  is 
ruled.  I  was  the  son  of  a  butcher  of  Paris. 
Wlien  the  ancient  kings  had  all  died  out,  save  one 
who  had  assumed  the  gray  garb,  I  found  me  with 
the  bridle  of  the  government  of  the  realm  fast  in 
my  hands," 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       47 

Here  follows  a  recital  of  wicked  deeds  done 
by  Hugh's  descendants  by  reason  of  avarice,  in 
the  midst  of  which  is  the  apostrophe,  "  O  Ava- 
rice, what  more  canst  thou  do  with  us  since  thou 
hast  so  drawn  thy  race  unto  thyself  that  it 
cares  not  for  its  own  flesh?  " 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  tradi- 
tion concerning  Hugh's  birth  rested  on  fact. 
His  descent  from  Robert  the  Strong  was  di- 
rect and  he  himself  was  the  worthy  head  of  a 
family  that  had  given  to  the  throne  of  France 
one  titled  and  two  untitled  kings. 

The  son  who  followed  Hugh  was  Robert  the 
Pious  (996-1031)  and  he  and  his  successors  for 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  labored  perseveringly 
toward  that  centralization  of  power  in  the  mon- 
arch which  came  to  definite  realization  in  the 
reign  of  Phihp  Augustus  (1180-1223),  and  to 
establishment  under  the  single-hearted  rule  of 
Louis  IX,  the  Saint  (1226-1270). 

Within  three  centuries  after  the  accession  of 
the  new  dynasty  Paris  attained  to  the  position 
which  she  has  held  ever  since — as  the  head  of 
the  nation,  leading  by  virtue  of  her  thought  and 
will,  and  as  the  heart  of  the  people,  beating  with 
impulses  of  generosity  and  love  and  passion. 
With  Hugh  Capet  himself  her  stability  began, 
for  he  was  the  first  king  to  make  the  city  his  per- 
manent home.    The  palace  at  the  western  end  of 


48  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  Cite  had  been  strengthened  by  Eudes  who 
made  of  it  a  square  fortress  with  towers.  Here 
Hugh  Hved  when  he  was  not  in  the  field  sup- 
pressing the  uprisings  of  the  nobles  who  had 
elected  him.  That  they  were  of  a  spirit  so  inde- 
pendent as  to  need  a  constant  curb  is  to  be 
guessed  from  a  conversation  reported  to  have 
occurred  between  Hugh  and  Adelbert,  one  of 
the  great  lords.  "  Have  a  care,"  warned  Hugh. 
"  Who  made  you  count?  "  "  Wlio  made  you 
king?  "  instantly  retorted  the  lord.  Perhaps  it 
was  a  wish  not  to  seem  to  glory  over  his  subjects 
that  impelled  Hugh  never  to  wear  his  crown  after 
the  occasion  of  his  coronation.  By  having  his 
son  Robert  crowned  at  the  same  time  he  helped 
secure  the  stability  of  his  line. 

To  the  west  of  the  palace  Hugh  planted  a 
garden,  and  he  also  added  stables,  whose  care 
was  entrusted  to  a  comte  de  Vetahle,  or  consta- 
ble, the  title  given  later  and  until  1627  to  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  French  army.  On 
the  river  side  of  the  palace  the  king  rebuilt  the 
Gallo-Roman  prison  on  the  spot  where  now 
stands  the  Conciergerie.  The  keeper  of  this 
prison  was  a  noble  to  whom  was  given  the  title 
of  count  of  the  candles,  comte  des  cierges  or  con- 
cierge, the  name  bestowed  to-day  on  a  janitor. 
His  pay  in  the  olden  days  consisted  of  two  fowls 
a  day  and  the  ashes  from  the  king's  fireplace. 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       49 

To  the  east  of  the  palace  on  the  spot  where 
the  Tribunal  of  Commerce  now  rises,  there  stood 
in  Hugh's  day  a  Merovingian  chapel  dedicated 
to  Saint  Bartholomew.  Legend  has  it  that  it 
was  of  ancient  origin  and  had  been  sacred  to 
pagan  gods.  To  secure  their  overthrow.  Saint 
Denis,  it  is  said,  went  there  to  preach,  and  there 
it  was  that  he  was  seized  by  his  enemies.  King 
Hugh  enlarged  the  church  and  dedicated  it  not 
only  to  Saint  Bartholomew  but  to  Saint  Mag- 
loire  as  well. 

It  was  during  the  time  of  Robert  the  Pious 
that  society,  grown  degenerate  under  the  gen- 
erally base  or  incompetent  kings  of  the  Mero- 
vingian and  Carlovingian  dynasties,  reached  its 
lowest  ebb  of  hopelessness  and  inaction.  Mod- 
ern historians  deny  that  fear  of  the  end  of  the 
world  when  the  year  1000  should  open  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  lethargy  of  this  period. 
Whether  they  are  right  or  wrong,  it  cannot  be 
disputed  that  after  the  year  had  begim  there  was 
a  stirring  such  as  had  not  been  known  for  two 
or  three  generations.  Only  the  church  seems  to 
have  emerged  triumphant  in  material  things, 
for  it  now  held  rich  possessions  whose  deeds  of 
gift,  beginning  "  Because  of  the  approaching 
end  of  the  world,"  seem  to  hint  at  an  attempt 
of  former  owners  to  be  on  the  safe  side  in  the 
event  of  the  possible  coming  of  the  Day  of 


50  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Judgment.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  givers, 
stripped  stark,  had  to  busy  themselves  to  restore 
their  affairs,  and  some  new  constructive  impulse 
built  noble  buildings  and  inspired  a  brutalized 
society  with  ideals  which  devoted  force  to  uplift- 
ing ends — the  protection  of  the  weak  and  the 
defense  of  the  church. 

Robert  did  not  inherit  his  father's  energy  or 
administrative  ability.  He  was  a  handsome 
man,  fond  of  appearing  in  public  wearing  his 
crown  and  flowing  robes.  He  was  something 
of  a  scholar,  and  so  good  a  musician  that  he  led 
the  choir  at  Saint  Denis  and  composed  hymns 
which  were  accepted  by  the  Church.  The  poor 
were  his  especial  care  and  so  traded  on  his  good 
nature  that  they  even  snipped  the  gold  tassels 
and  fringe  from  his  garments  when  he  went 
abroad.  At  an  open  table  many  hundred  dined 
daily  at  his  expense.  He  was  truly  pious  as  his 
name  declared,  and,  in  the  manner  of  the  age,  he 
sought  to  express  his  religious  interest  by  the 
building  of  churches  and  monasteries.  Paris  in 
especial  profited  by  his  desire  to  win  eternal 
favor,  for  he  built  or  restored  churches  to  the 
mystic  number  of  seven  and  twice  that  number 
of  religious  establishments. 

King  Robert's  domestic  life  verged  on  trag- 
edy. He  married  a  distant  cousin  whom  he 
loved  devotedly,  but  the  marriage  was  not  ap- 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       51 

proved  by  the  pope,  and  when  the  king  and 
queen  refused  to  separate  he  excommunicated 
them.  To  be  excommunicated  meant  not  only 
that  the  offender  was  cut  off  from  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  Church,  but  that  he  was  forbidden 
all  intercourse  with  his  fellow  men.  Every  one 
fled  at  sight  of  the  accursed  and  the  few  ser- 
vants left  to  the  royal  pair  cleansed  with  fire 
every  plate  and  cup  that  they  used. 

Robert  and  Bertha  finally  bowed  to  the  papal 
decree.  Robert  then  married  Constance,  daugh- 
ter of  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  who  proved  a  suf- 
ficient punishment  for  any  and  all  his  sins  of 
omission  and  commission.  In  her  train  came 
troubadours  and  southern  knights  who  brought 
to  Robert's  rebuilt  and  enlarged  Paris  palace 
fashions  of  dress  that  were  regarded  as  un- 
seemly, manners  that  were  all  too  frivolous,  and 
characters  unworthy  of  dependence.  The  nov- 
elty caught  the  fancy  of  the  Parisians,  who, 
according  to  an  old  chronicler,  "  before  long  re- 
flected only  too  faithfully  the  depravity  and  in- 
famy of  their  models." 

Constance  kept  a  sharp  eye  on  her  husband's 
charitable  disbursements,  and  she  brought  up 
her  sons  so  badly  that  Robert's  last  years  were 
embittered  by  their  brawlings  and  rebellions. 
The  king  died  bitterly  lamented  by  his  subjects, 
who  knew  enough  of  the  character  of  his  sue- 


52  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

cesser  to  feel  strong  apprehension  concerning 
their  fate  at  his  hands. 

The  eleventh  century,  filled  by  the  reigns  of 
Robert,  his  son,  Henry  I  (1031-1060)  and  his 
grandson  Philip  I  (1060-1108),  was  made  ter- 
rible by  famines  and  wonderful  by  the  opening 
of  the  great  adventure  of  the  Crusades.  The 
famine  brought  to  thousands  a  lingering  death 
beside  which  the  sudden  departure  attending 
the  end  of  the  world  would  have  been  peaceful 
translation.  The  Crusades,  begun  (1096)  in 
exaltation  but  in  a  pitiful  ignorance  of  ways  and 
means,  ended  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  years 
later  in  selfishness  and  an  accession  of  knowledge. 
The  ignorance  cost  a  waste  of  human  life  hor- 
rible to  think  of;  the  knowledge  moved  western 
Europe  to  expression  in  all  forms  of  art,  and 
brought  about  a  feeling  of  unity  which,  in 
France,  produced  a  nation  bound  by  common  in- 
terests. Beyond  any  calculation  was  the  im- 
petus given  to  commerce  and  to  the  intellectual 
life.  The  ordering  of  society,  the  institution  of 
chivalry,  the  awakening  to  the  vividness  of  men- 
tal activity  and  of  beauty — these  three  influ- 
ences touched  life  imder  the  early  Capetians  un- 
til it  grew  and  ripened  into  the  simple,  beauty- 
loving.  God-fearing  temper  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  soul  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Henry  I    (1031-1060),  no  weakling  but  not 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       53 

a  man  of  administrative  ability,  followed  his 
father's  example  as  a  builder.  One  of  his  bene- 
factions was  the  Priory  of  Saint  Martin-des- 
Champs  which  was  begun  in  the  last  year  of  his 
reign  on  the  site  of  a  former  establishment  which 
had  been  destroyed  by  the  Normans.  It  lay 
well  out  of  the  city  on  the  old  Roman  road  lead- 
ing to  the  north  and  was  a  huge  place,  a  fortified 
village  in  itself  and  quite  independent  of  Paris. 
A  wall  of  considerable  size  furnished  with  round 
towers  surrounded  an  enclosure  in  which  were 
a  church,  a  refectory,  a  cloister,  a  chapter-house, 
an  archive  tower,  a  field  for  the  pasturing  of 
cattle,  gardens  for  the  raising  of  vegetables,  and 
a  cemetery  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.  The  wall 
has  gone  to-day  except  for  one  of  the  round 
towers  which  was  preserved  and  rebuilt  through 
the  intercession  of  Victor  Hugo  when  the 
straightening  of  a  street  called  for  its  destruc- 
tion. The  field  and  gardens  and  the  cemetery 
are  now  hidden  beneath  houses  and  pavements, 
but  the  church,  whose  erection  lasted  from  the 
eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  century,  and  the  re- 
fectory, finished  in  the  thirteenth  century,  have 
been  preserved  as  parts  of  the  Conservatoire  des 
Arts  et  Metiers,  established  by  the  Convention 
in  1794  as  a  technical  school  and  museum  of 
machines  and  scientific  instruments.  The 
church,  secularized,  serves  as  an  exhibition  hall 


54         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

for  macliiner}%  an  incongruous  and  somewhat 
shocking  combination.  The  refectory  is  put  to 
the  more  suitable  use  of  housing  the  technical 
library.  Both  are  exquisite  examples,  and  the 
church  is  the  oldest  existing  instance  in  the  city, 
of  that  Gothic  architecture  which  sprang  into 
being  in  the  twelfth  century  as  if  to  sjonbolize 
with  its  stretching  height  and  its  soaring  spires, 
its  delicate  workmanship  and  its  brilliancy  of 
light  and  coloring,  the  aspiration  toward  the  high 
and  the  beautiful  which  filled  men's  desires 
after  they  came  in  contact  with  the  appealing 
mysticism  and  the  dazzling  loveliness  of  the 
East. 

Like  his  father  Henry  had  trouble  with  his 
wives — there  were  three  of  them — and  the  mari- 
tal affairs  of  his  son,  Philip  I  (1060-1108),  were 
even  more  involved.  Becoming  violently  infat- 
uated with  Bertrade,  the  fourth  wife  of  the 
Count  of  Anjou,  Philip  sent  away  his  wife, 
Bertha,  and  arranged  with  Bertrade  during  a 
church  service  that  she  should  submit  to  being 
kidnapped.  No  bishop  would  marry  them  and  it 
was  only  after  long  search  that  a  priest  was 
found  sufficiently  timid  or  sufficiently  avaricious 
to  yield  his  conscience  to  the  royal  demand. 
Excommunication  followed  promptly,  and  for 
twelve  years  the  coming  of  Philip  and  Bertrade 
to  a  city  silenced  the  church  bells,  which  rang 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       55 

out  joyfully  again  as  they  left.  So  bad  was  the 
effect  upon  his  people  of  their  king's  obstinate 
wrong-doing  that  the  pope  at  last  consented  to 
an  examination  of  the  royal  offender.  All  the 
bishops  of  France  met  in  Paris  on  the  first  day 
of  December,  1104.  The  Bishop  of  Orleans  and 
the  Bishop  of  Paris  waited  upon  Phihp  and 
asked  whether  he  were  prepared  to  change  his 
manner  of  life.  He  said  that  he  was  and  ac- 
cordingly appeared  before  the  ecclesiastical  body 
barefooted  and  seemingly  penitent.  Kneehng 
he  promised  atonement  and  swore  to  put  aside 
Bertrade.  Bertrade  took  a  similar  oath. 
Neither  of  them  kept  it,  but  so  wilhng  was 
everybody  to  feign  blindness  after  this  form  of 
expiation  that  two  years  later  the  monks  of 
Saint  Nicholas  at  Angers  received  them  both 
cordially,  and  Bertrade's  discarded  husband 
dined  at  the  same  table  with  his  successor  and 
slept  in  the  same  room  with  him. 

Philip  never  was  a  friend  of  the  church 
though  he  did  not  in  later  life  carry  into  effect 
depredations  such  as  he  planned  when  young, 
a  real  theft,  in  fact,  which,  through  a  miraculous 
intervention,  never  came  to  pass.  Feeling  a 
twinge  of  royal  poverty — which  does  not  mean 
that  he  was  really  very  poor — he  went  with  one 
of  his  officers  to  Saint  Germain-des-Pres  to  take 
possession  of  some  part  of  its  riches.     As  they 


56         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

approached  the  treasury  the  king's  companion 
was  stricken  bhnd,  a  circumstance  that  put  the 
thieving  monarch  to  flight  in  terror.  Yet  the 
check  was  not  lasting  for  he  and  his  courtiers  so 
corrupted  some  of  the  nunneries  and  monas- 
teries of  Paris  that  the  Bishop  of  Paris  was 
obhged  to  disperse  the  estabhshments.  One  of 
the  largest,  a  convent,  was  on  the  Cite  on  the 
site  of  the  present  Prefecture  of  Police. 

Having  all  this  trouble  with  the  pope  and  the 
church  on  his  hands  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  Philip  was  not  stirred  by  Peter  the  Her- 
mit's preaching  of  the  First  Crusade.  Indeed, 
no  great  ruler  went  on  this  first  expedition, 
though  the  enlistment  of  many  strong  lords  and 
their  feudal  following,  and  the  unwise  rush  of 
whole  families — women  and  children  as  well  as 
men  and  youths — lost  many  lives  to  France  in 
this  most  French  of  all  the  crusades. 

Though  not  of  a  temper  to  sympathize  per- 
sonally with  a  love  of  learning  Philip  had  intel- 
ligence enough  and  kingly  pride  enough  to  see 
the  advantage  to  Paris  of  a  concentration  of 
schools  in  his  capital.  He  never  interfered  with 
the  teaching  of  the  religious  houses,  and  during 
his  reign  and  immediately  after  at  least  four 
schools  had  obtained  a  more  than  local  reputa- 
tion. As  the  church  of  Saint  Denis  sheltered 
the  tombs  of  the  kings  it  was  fitting  that  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       57 

abbey  should  instruct  the  sons  of  the  nobles ;  the 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  stood  in  the  heart  of 
the  Cite,  and  there  the  sons  of  the  merchants 
were  trained,  one  of  their  teachers  being  William 
of  Champeaux  whose  eloquence  knew  no  equal 
until  it  was  matched  and  surpassed  by  one  of  his 
pupils,  a  young  man  from  Brittany,  Abelard. 
Abelard  learned  what  many  others  have  learned 
before  and  since,  that  it  is  both  tactless  and  un- 
profitable to  outshine  your  so-called  "  betters." 
He  was  sent  away  from  Paris.  It  was  not  long 
before  he  was  summoned  back  by  general  ac- 
claim, and  joined  the  lecturers  of  the  third  great 
school  of  the  time,  the  favorite  of  the  foreign  stu- 
dents, that  of  the  abbey  of  Sainte  Genevieve. 
His  popularity  there  so  displeased  WiUiam  of 
Champeaux  that  he  severed  his  connection  with 
the  school  of  Notre  Dame  and  founded  the 
school  and  abbey  of  Saint  Victor,  on  the  south 
bank,  east  of  the  island.  This  abbey  was  sup- 
pressed during  the  Revolution  and  Napoleon 
built  on  its  site  the  Halle  aux  Vins  where  the 
city's  supply  of  wine  is  stored  in  bond. 

Of  these  four  schools  the  one  to  which  Abelard 
attached  himself  acquired  a  drawing  reputation 
thi'oughout  all  Europe,  and  scholars  from  Eng- 
land and  Germany  and  Italy  sought  him  ea- 
gerly, often  enjoying  the  privilege  of  sitting 
under  him  at  the  expense  of  a  long  journey  on 


58         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

foot  and  of  a  life  of  privation  when  Paris  was 
reached.  Abelard's  thesis  was  "  Do  not  beheve 
what  you  cannot  understand  " — the  time-hon- 
ored cry  of  the  independent  thinker.  The  con- 
servatives bided  their  time;  there  was  no  use 
contending  with  a  man  in  whom  youth,  beauty, 
learning  and  eloquence  flowered  in  a  magical 
persuasiveness. 

Unfortunately  for  Abelard's  career  he  was  in- 
vited by  Fulbert,  a  canon  of  the  cathedral,  to 
enter  his  household  as  tutor  of  his  niece,  Heloise. 
It  was  a  rash  experiment.  In  a  narrow  street 
of  the  Cite,  twisting  about  in  the  space  north  of 
the  cathedral,  the  section  where  the  canons  and 
canonesses  used  to  live,  there  is  still  shown  the 
site  of  the  garden  where  tutor  and  pupil,  soon 
grown  lovers,  met  in  secret  and  plighted  a  troth 
that  was  to  bring  upon  them  both  suffering  and 
shame — for  Abelard  the  end  of  his  rise  in  the 
church,  for  Heloise,  the  cloister.  They  were 
married  and  lived  for  a  time  where  now  stands 
nmnber  nine  on  the  Quai  aux  Fleurs,  looking 
across  the  Seine  to  the  right  bank.  Fulbert  sep- 
arated them,  but  even  the  conservatives  were 
shocked  at  the  hideous  revenge  which  sent  Abe- 
lard away  from  Paris  only  to  be  reunited  with 
Heloise  after  her  death  in  a  convent  twenty 
years  after  the  death  of  her  lover.  To-day  their 
tomb  in  Pere  Lachaise  is  the  most  visited  of  all 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       59 

the  resting  places  of  the  illustrious  in  this  fa- 
mous cemetery. 

Louis  VI  (1108-1137),  called  "the  Wide- 
awake "  and  "  the  Fat,"  was  a  monarch  who 
did  much  and  planned  more.  Tall,  handsome, 
energetic,  serious,  he  was  the  author  of  policies 
which  in  later  days  developed  important  results. 
His  accession  found  his  kingdom  surrounded  by 
nobles  who  were  nominally  his  subjects  but 
really  enemies  of  uncommon  vigor  awaiting  the 
first  chance  to  take  their  liege  lord  by  surprise. 
He  needed  something  more  than  his  present  re- 
sources to  cope  with  the  situation,  and  he  met  it 
by  making  for  his  son  an  advantageous  mar- 
riage which  won  him  the  adherence  of  Poitou 
and  Guienne,  and  by  permitting  in  his  adver- 
saries' domains,  but  not  in  his  own,  the  establish- 
ment of  communes — self-governing  towns  which 
paid  for  their  privileges  by  Supporting  him 
against  the  nobles  who  ordinarily  would  have 
received  their  feudal  obedience.  Both  these  steps 
proved  of  substantial  value  to  the  crown,  the 
first  adding  a  large  piece  of  territory  to  the 
royal  possessions  in  the  next  reign,  and  the  other 
developing  a  new  social  class,  the  bourgeoisie  or 
town  dwelling  class,  whose  democratic  spirit 
grew  so  rapidly  that  Louis  IX  in  the  next  cen- 
tury had  to  check  its  advance  if  he  would  have 
his  own  unchecked.    It  has  never  been  long  sub- 


60         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

dued,  however;  it  smoldered  until  it  burst  into 
the  flame  of  the  Revolution;  it  persists  to-day 
as  the  genius  of  the  Third  Republic. 

Paris  never  was  a  commune,  but,  in  compen- 
sation for  remaining  under  the  rulersliip  of  the 
king  and  his  provost  (who  lived  in  the  Grand 
Chatelet  built  to  defend  the  northern  end  of  the 
bridge  from  the  Cite  as  the  Petit  Chatelet 
held  the  southern  bank)  it  received  certain 
unusual  privileges.  Among  them  was  the  mo- 
nopoly of  water  transportation  between  Paris 
and  Mantes  granted  by  Louis  VI  to  the  Corpora- 
tion of  Water  Merchants.  This  corporation 
was  the  most  powerful  of  the  merchants'  guilds  in 
whose  hands  rested  the  municipal  administra- 
tion. 

Louis'  methods,  and  those  of  his  schoolmate 
and  adviser,  Suger,  abbot  of  Saint  Denis,  en- 
com'aged  the  growth  of  the  city,  for  in  tliis  reign 
it  began  once  more  to  increase  briskly  on  both 
banks  of  the  river.  As  in  the  earlier  centuries, 
the  pleasant  country  on  the  left  bank  proved 
more  attractive  than  did  the  rough  land  on  the 
right.  The  south  side  permitted  streets  to  wan- 
der as  widely  as  they  willed,  but  on  the  north  the 
newcomers  were  pushed  into  a  crowded  section 
along  the  river.  Marsh  and  forest  behind  sep- 
arated this  compact  district  from  Saint  Martin- 
des-Champs.      Even    at    this    early    stage    the 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       61 

northern  settlement,  grouped  around  the 
Greve  where  the  shipping  was  concentrated,  was 
becoming  the  business  part  of  Paris.  At  a  dis- 
creet distance  outside  were  the  markets  on 
exactly  the  spot  where  the  Halles  Centrales 
stand  to-day,  and  just  within  the  settlement 
Louis  built  for  the  benefit  of  the  market  men 
and  women  the  church  of  Saint  Jacques-la- 
Boucherie,  now  entirely  destroyed  except  for  a 
sixteenth  century  tower  which  stands  in  ornate 
dignity  in  a  leafy  square  around  which  nineteenth 
century  steam  trams  and  twentieth  century 
automobiles  hoot  and  whirl. 

To  Louis  VI  is  attributed  the  building  of  the 
second  city  wall,  piecing  out  its  predecessor  so 
as  to  protect  the  suburbs  on  the  right  bank.  He 
was  interested,  too,  in  religious  establislmients. 
He  added  to  the  nmnber  of  the  clergy  of  the 
chapel  of  Saint  Nicholas  near  the  palace,  mak- 
ing part  of  their  emolmnent  six  hogsheads  of 
wine  apiece  from  his  own  vineyards.  He  re- 
paired Notre  Dame,  already  five  centm-ies  old. 
He  was  a  patron  of  Saint  Denis,  where  he  had 
been  educated  and  where  he  adopted  as  the  royal 
banner  the  oriflamme  of  the  saint.  He  dedi- 
cated a  church  of  the  Cite  to  Sainte  Genevieve  in 
gratitude  for  her  staying  an  epidemic  of  fever. 
He  had  the  heads  of  cattle  carved  over  the  door  of 
the  church  with  which  he  honored  Saint  Peter — 


62         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Saint  Pierre-aux-Boeufs — for  the  especial  bene- 
fit of  the  butchers  of  the  city. 

On  top  of  Montmartre,  standing  demurely 
to-day  beside  the  glittering  basilica  of  the  Sa- 
cred Heart,  is  the  little  church  of  Saint  Pierre- 
de-Montmartre  built  by  Louis  as  the  chapel  of 
a  Benedictine  abbey.  Its  restoration  has  been 
completed  within  the  last  decade,  and  its  cold, 
undecorated  severity  compels  a  realization  of 
monastic  cheerlessness  and  of  how  acceptable 
must  have  been  the  reaction  to  the  colorful 
warmth  and  grace  of  the  Gothic.  Though  their 
chm'ch  was  not  beautiful  the  Benedictines  had 
no  reason  to  be  uncomfortable^  for  Louis  granted 
to  them  a  whole  village  and  sundry  estates,  and 
in  addition  such  eminently  secular  property  as 
a  monopoly  of  the  baking  privileges  of  certain 
ovens,  a  slaughter-house,  the  confiscated  house 
of  an  Italian  money-changer,  and  the  exclusive 
right  to  fish  in  certain  parts  of  the  Seine. 

Up  to  this  point  the  buildings  mentioned  have 
but  little  to  show  to  modern  eyes  beyond  their 
ancient  character  and  perhaps  their  form.  A 
Roman  bath,  a  IMerovingian  tower  on  the 
Church  of  Saint  Germain-des-Pres,  a  rebuilt 
tower  of  Saint  Martin's  Priory,  two  aged  col- 
umns in  Saint  Pierre-de-Montmartre — these 
are  but  fragments  of  the  old  constructions. 
From  this  period  on,  however,  it  will  become 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       63 

more  and  more  usual  to  find  large  portions  of 
early  buildings.  One  such  is  the  church  of  Saint 
Julien-le-Pauvi'e.  Its  date  is  a  little  later  than 
that  of  the  abbey  church  of  Saint  Pierre-de- 
Montmartre.  It  is  Gothic  at  its  simplest,  yet  its 
pointed  windows  and  arches  are  prophetic  of  the 
beauty  to  come. 

The  story  of  Saint  Julien,  to  whom  the 
church  is  dedicated,  is  one  of  tragic  interest.  A 
youth  of  noble  family,  he  gave  himself  earnestly 
to  all  the  piu'suits  of  his  time  and  of  his  class, 
his  one  fault  being  his  love  of  the  cruelties  of  the 
chase.  One  day  a  dying  stag  whose  doe  and 
fawn  he  had  killed  prophesied  that  he  would 
slay  his  own  father  and  mother.  The  prophecy 
came  to  pass  and  Julien,  in  horror  at  the  misfor- 
tune that  had  befallen  him,  left  home  and  wife 
and  wealth  and  wandered  in  poverty  through  the 
world  seeking  whom  he  might  help.  At  last  he 
established  himself  on  a  river  bank  in  a  hut 
where  he  sheltered  travelers  through  the  night, 
and  in  the  morning  ferried  them  across  the 
stream.  There  he  lived  a  life  of  expiation  till 
death  took  him. 

It  was  in  the  sixth  century  that  a  pil- 
grim's hostel  was  built  in  Saint  Julien's  honor 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Seine.  There  Saint 
Gregory  of  Tom*s  lodged  in  580,  and  there  the 
Normans  came  in  886  and  destroyed  it.    In  the 


64         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

twelfth  century  it  was  rebuilt  as  a  part  of  the 
Abbey  of  Longpont.  Since  then  the  unpreten- 
tious building  has  had  a  varied  history.  At  one 
time  it  served  as  the  general  assembly  hall  of  the 
University;  again  it  became  the  chapel  of  the 
hospital,  the  Hotel  Dieu.  During  the  Revolu- 
tion it  served  as  a  storehouse  for  fodder.  At 
some  time  the  nave  was  destroyed,  leaving  in  the 
present  courtyard  a  well  which  once  was  beneath 
the  roof  of  the  church.  The  existing  edifice, 
which  is  merely  the  choir  of  the  twelfth  century 
building,  is  used  for  the  Greek  service. 

Thanks  to  his  father's  prudent  arrangements 
Louis  VII,  called  "the  Young"  and  "the 
Pious  "  (1137-1180),  inherited  a  far  larger  and 
stronger  territory  than  had  Louis  VI.  He  was 
by  no  means  his  father's  equal  in  intelligence  or 
energy  and  his  reign  was  unmarked  by  events 
notable  either  for  Paris  or  for  France.  His  hap- 
piest days  were  those  that  he  spent  in  the  clois- 
ters of  Notre  Dame,  he  said.  His  father  was 
happiest  in  the  field. 

A  few  years  after  Louis'  accession  he  became 
involved  in  a  quarrel  with  the  pope  over  a  can- 
didate for  a  bishopric.  When  the  Count  of 
Champagne  sided  with  the  Holy  Father  Louis 
invaded  his  domains.  During  the  siege  of  the 
town  of  Vitry  no  fewer  than  thirteen  hundred 
people  who  had  taken  refuge  in  a  church  were 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       65 

burned  to  death  with  the  destruction  of  the 
building.  Remorse  for  this  disaster  for  which 
he  was  responsible  made  him  lend  a  willing  ear 
to  the  exhortations  of  Saint  Bernard,  an  oppo- 
nent of  Abelard's  heresies  who  was  now  preach- 
ing the  Second  Crusade,  and  when  Pope  Eugen- 
ius  came  in  person  to  France  he  gave  the  French 
king  the  pilgrim's  equipment  and  the  oriflamme 
of  Saint  Denis  in  the  Saint's  own  church.  The 
crusade  ended  in  bitter  disaster,  and  Louis  died 
before  the  Third  Crusade  was  under  way,  but  his 
interest  in  the  Holy  Wars  led  to  his  patronage 
of  the  order  of  Knights  Templar,  which  had 
been  founded  to  protect  pilgrims  to  the  Holy 
Sepulcher.  At  the  time  when  Pope  Eugenius 
went  to  Paris  there  was  a  mighty  gathering 
there  of  Templars,  and  probably  it  was  then 
that  King  Louis  granted  them  the  land  not  far 
from  the  Priory  of  Saint  Martin  on  which  they 
built  a  huge  establishment,  part  fortification, 
part  religious  house,  whose  surroundings  they 
made  fair  by  draining  the  marshes  and  convert- 
ing waste  land  into  fruitful  fields. 

The  king  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  cause 
of  much  civic  improvement  of  Paris  in  spite  of 
his  long  reign.  He  built  an  oratory  to  Notre 
Dame-de-l'Etoile  near  the  palace.  If  we  may 
judge  by  his  usual  oath — "  By  the  Holy  Inno- 
cents of  Bethlehem  " — it  must  have  been  he  who 


66         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

gave  the  name  to  the  cemetery  of  the  Holy  In- 
nocents and  its  chapel,  though  probably  they 
were  established  before  his  da}^  The  burying 
ground  was  near  the  Halles,  and  it  was  laid  out 
when  that  section  was  far  beyond  the  crowded 
part  of  the  town.  By  the  time  of  the  acces- 
sion of  Philip  Augustus  (1180),  however,  the 
population  had  pushed  northwards  from  the 
busy  river  bank,  the  marsh  had  been  made 
habitable,  and  the  quickly  increasing  cemetery 
stood  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  not  in  the 
countr}^  and  needed  the  wall  which  Philip  gave 
it. 

The  Pont  au  Change,  the  bridge  leading  from 
the  right  bank  to  the  island  near  the  palace — 
perhaps  the  very  line  which  the  Grand  Pont 
drew  across  the  river  at  the  time  of  the  siege 
by  the  Normans — received  its  name  at  this  time. 
There  were  houses  built  upon  it  from  end  to  end, 
and  Louis  allowed  the  money-changers  to  do 
business  upon  it  along  one  side  and  permitted 
the  goldsmiths  to  establish  themselves  on  the 
other.  For  four  centuries  this  was  the  fashion- 
able promenade  of  Paris  until  Henry  IV  fin- 
ished the  Pont  Neuf  whose  open  expanse  across 
the  western  tip  of  the  Cite  gave  more  space  for 
display.  When  a  new  king  made  liis  formal 
entry  into  Paris  it  was  customary  for  a  huge 
flock  of  birds  to  be  let  loose  from  the  Pont  au 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  CAPETIANS       67 

Change  that  they  might  carry  the  glad  news 
abroad. 

Eleanor  of  Aquitaine  who  had  brought  Louis 
and  France  so  handsome  a  dowry  proved  a  wife 
whose  conduct  her  husband  could  not  counte- 
nance, though  he  loved  her  with  a  stern  fond- 
ness. Their  marriage  was  annulled.  Within  a 
few  months  Eleanor  married  Henry  Plantag- 
enet  who  became  Henry  II  of  England  and 
she  gave  her  new  husband  possessions  in  France 
which,  added  to  those  which  he  already  had  as 
lord  of  Normandy,  Brittany,  Anjou  and 
JMaine,  made  him  richer  in  French  lands  than 
the  king  to  whom  he  owed  allegiance.  Then  be- 
gan the  friction  between  the  two  countries  which 
it  has  required  centuries  to  still.  Louis  was  twice 
married  after  his  separation  from  Eleanor.  His 
last  wife  was  Alix  or  Adelaide  of  Chamj^agne, 
whose  marriage,  consecration  and  coronation  on 
a  November  day  in  1160  were  the  ceremonies  of 
the  last  brilliant  scene  enacted  within  the  walls 
of  the  ancient  JNIerovingian  church  of  Notre 
Dame,  soon  to  be  replaced  by  the  building  which 
ennobles  the  Cite  to-day. 

After  Louis'  death  there  came  to  the  throne 
a  king  for  whom  the  bird-sellers  of  the  Pont  au 
Change  might  properly  have  sent  forth  double 
the  usual  number  of  feathered  messengers  of 


68  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

gladness,  for  Philip  the  Great  was  to  make 
France  understand  for  the  first  time  the 
spirit  of  nationality,  and  under  him  Paris  was  to 
develop  into  the  brain  that  ordered  the  members. 


CHAPTER  V 

PARIS   OF   PHILIP   AUGUSTUS 

IN  Philip  Augustus  (1180-1223)  was  reincar- 
nated Charlemagne's  wide-seeing  spirit, 
and  now  it  appeared  at  a  time  when  it  was 
possible  to  turn  vision  into  fact.  Charlemagne 
saw  the  value  of  a  united  nation  under  a  central- 
ized power  but  conditions  were  not  ripe  for  the 
fulfillment  of  his  vision.  Philip  Augustus  was 
alert  in  taking  advantage  of  the  beginning  made 
by  Louis  VI  toward  establishing  the  supremacy 
of  the  king  and  in  availing  himself  of  certain 
feudal  rights  which  previous  monarchs  had  not 
been  strong  enough  to  enforce.  He  insisted  that 
his  vassals,  great  lords  all  of  them,  should  sub- 
mit themselves  to  his  court ;  that  they  should  take 
him  as  arbiter  of  their  disputes ;  that  they  should 
ask  his  confirmation,  as  suzerain,  of  any  privi- 
leges that  they  granted  to  their  vassals ;  and  that 
they  should  make  no  changes  in  their  fiefs  which 
should  lessen  their  value  to  him.  As  suzerain 
the  king  was  heir  to  fiefs  which  fell  vacant  for 
any  reason,  and  he  acted  as  guardian  for  the 
many  minor  children  orphaned  in  the  constant 
quarrels  in  which  the  nobles  engaged. 

69 


70         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

A  strong  grasp  of  all  these  hitherto  unurged 
rights  gave  Philip  a  power  that  enabled  him  to 
repress  the  disorders  of  the  country,  and  sounded 
the  note  for  the  downfall  of  feudal  home  rule 
which  could  not  live  harmoniously  with  power 
centralized  in  the  monarch. 

Phihp's  procedm-e  divided  his  kingdom  into 
bailiwicks,  each  containing  several  provostships. 
Four  times  a  year  each  hcdlli  appeared  before 
the  assizes  in  Paris  and  reported  on  the  condition 
of  the  land  under  his  care.  Thrice  a  year  he 
came  to  town  bringing  the  revenues  of  his  baili- 
wick, and  the  king  saw  to  it  that  the  money  was 
not  turned  over  to  any  body  of  lords,  always  hun- 
gry for  more  without  Oliver's  excuse,  and  ac- 
customed to  pocket  any  sums  that  strayed  in  their 
way.  By  the  king's  decree  the  financial  report 
was  made  to  a  board  consisting  of  a  clerk  and  of 
six  burgesses.  The  burgesses  were  always 
Philip's  good  friends.  He  made  it  for  their  in- 
terest to  be  faithful  to  him,  and  with  their  aid  he 
played  the  barons  against  the  church,  the  church 
against  the  barons,  and  both  against  the  bands  of 
robbers  that  infested  the  kingdom.  He  banished 
the  Jews  and  confiscated  their  property,  this  for 
the  same  spiritual  benefit  which  he  thought  would 
profit  the  country  by  his  burning  of  heretics. 
Incidentally,  the  contents  of  the  Hebrews'  cof- 
fers hidden  in  the  ghetto  on  the  Cite  did  not  come 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  71 

amiss  for  the  filling  of  the  king's  own  strong 
boxes  in  the  palace  not  far  away. 

In  the  palace  Philip's  father  and  grandfather 
had  died,  there  he  himself  was  born,  and  there  he 
married  his  second  wife,  Ingeborg  of  Denmark, 
to  whom  he  took  so  violent  a  dislike  that  he  sep- 
arated from  her  the  next  day.  The  imlucky 
young  woman  appealed  to  the  pope  and  the  con- 
sequent embroilment  of  Philip  with  the  church 
on  account  of  his  subsequent  marriage  with 
Agnes  of  Meran  laid  the  whole  kingdom  under 
interdict.  No  services  were  held  in  the  churches 
even  for  marriages  or  burials  and  the  unhappi- 
ness  caused  the  people  was  so  great  that  at  last 
Philip  put  away  Agnes  and  recalled  Ingeborg, 
Because  he  loved  Agnes  tenderly  he  hated  Inge- 
borg all  the  more  and  her  life  of  seeming  favor 
was  in  reality  one  of  wretchedness. 

When  Philip  came  to  the  throne  all  the  western 
part  of  what  is  now  France  belonged  to  the  king 
of  England,  Henry  II.  The  lie  de  France  was 
cut  off  from  the  sea,  and  the  frequent  hostile  ac- 
tions of  a  vassal  whose  possessions  were  greater 
than  his  own  kept  the  young  monarch  constantly 
involved  in  petty  wars  with  a  man  so  much  older 
than  he  and  so  much  more  skillful  a  tactician  that 
he  gained  nothing  and  even  came  near  losing  a 
part  of  what  he  had.  Into  the  mind  of  the  lad  of 
fifteen  these  troubles  instilled  a  hatred  of  Eng- 


72         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

land  and  a  determination  to  be  free  of  this  per- 
petual annoyance  and  to  obtain  a  hold  upon  land 
that  seemed  unnaturally  owned  by  a  lord  who 
was  his  vassal  and  yet  lived  over  seas. 

The  years  intervening  between  the  growth  of 
Philip's  determination  and  his  chance  to  put  it 
into  effect  were  filled  with  work  which  developed 
the  young  king's  naturally  strong  character  and 
intelligence.  After  Henry's  death  one  of  his 
troublesome  sons  succeeded  him — Richard,  who 
has  come  doAvn  in  history  as  "  the  Lion-hearted." 
Richard  was  handsome  and  brave,  a  man  to  stir 
the  imagination  and  admiration  of  a  fighting  age, 
but  he  was  too  impetuous  and  too  active  to  ap- 
ply himself  to  the  study  of  government.  When 
the  call  came  for  the  Third  Crusade  Richard 
found  in  it  an  outlet  for  his  energy  for  which  he 
would  not  have  to  make  excuse  to  his  deserted 
kingdom.  He  and  Philip  and  Frederick  of  Ger- 
many all  went  to  the  East,  and  there  the  French 
and  English  kings  came  to  know  each  other, 
Philip  envying  Richard's  dash  and  audacity  and 
envied  in  turn  for  the  statesmanlike  qualities 
which  he  was  developing. 

When  it  became  evident  that  his  presence 
would  be  of  no  help  to  a  crusade  doomed  to  fail- 
ure Philip  insisted  on  withdrawing  to  France 
where  he  knew  that  his  coming  would  be  of  ad- 
vantage ;  Richard  stayed  on  with  no  thought  for 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  73 

his  kingdom,  hoping  for  further  adventure. 
Phihp  put  himself  in  touch  with  conditions  in  and 
around  the  lie  de  France,  took  advantage  of  all 
disturbances  in  his  vassal's  provinces  which  would 
give  him  even  a  slender  foothold,  and  was  ready 
to  meet  any  act  of  Richard's  successor,  John, 
whatever  it  might  be. 

The  opportunity  came  soon  after  John's  ac- 
cession, for  he  could  be  depended  upon  to  open 
some  loophole  through  his  disposition  toward 
devious  ways  rather  than  straightforward.  As 
lord  of  the  western  provinces  of  France  he  was 
Philip's  vassal;  as  Duke  of  Brittany  his  boy 
nephew,  Arthur,  was  his  vassal.  When  war 
broke  out  between  France  and  England  and 
John  went  across  the  Channel  to  pursue  it,  he 
found  that  his  nephew,  incited  by  Philip,  without 
doubt,  was  laying  claim  to  other  provinces  than 
Brittany.  The  easiest  way  out  of  the  difficulty 
was  to  murder  Arthur,  which  Jolin  is  said  to  have 
done  either  with  his  own  hand  or  by  the  dirks  of 
ruffians  in  his  presence.  After  Philip  had 
stormed  a  fortress  that  had  been  looked  upon  as 
the  chief  defender  of  Rouen  the  frightened 
Englishman  fled  home,  and  then  Philip  devised 
a  plan  of  making  Arthui^'s  death  work  to  his  ad- 
vantage. As  John's  suzerain  he  summoned  him 
to  Paris  to  answer  for  his  nephew's  death  before 
the  king's  court.    John  refused  to  appear  unless 


74  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

he  were  promised  a  safe-conduct  not  only  to  the 
city  but  home  again.  PhiHp  refused  to  promise 
protection  for  the  return  trip  unless  the  court 
should  declare  John  not  guilty  of  the  charge 
against  him.  Phihp  hardly  could  have  expected 
that  John  would  thrust  his  head  into  the  noose, 
but  it  suited  his  purpose  quite  as  well  that  he 
should  not.  What  he  wanted  was  his  land  and 
that  he  could  take  now  with  perfect  justice  when 
the  court  declared  John  guilty  of  murder  and  of 
treason  in  disobeying  the  orders  of  his  overlord. 
The  estates  in  France  which  John  had  inherited 
from  his  father,  those  in  the  north,  were  confis- 
cated to  the  French  crown.  It  was  all  much 
easier  than  fighting. 

While  diplomacy  gained  for  Philip  these 
northern  possessions  and  the  power  that  went 
with  them,  he  gained  a  like  addition  in  the  south 
by  a  system  of  letting  alone.  Simon  de  Mont- 
fort,  a  noble  of  Normandy,  entered  upon  a  cru- 
sade against  the  people  of  Albi,  in  Toulouse,  a 
town  and  district  heretical  enough  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  persecutor  and  rich  enough  to 
draw  the  gaze  of  the  avaricious  soldier  of  fortune. 
The  destruction  that  ensued  laid  waste  a  fair 
country  and  wiped  out  the  greater  part  of  its 
population.  A  few  years  later  the  province  fell 
in  to  the  crown  in  default  of  direct  heirs  to  the 
ruling  family  of  Toulouse,  and  thus  the  south 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  75 

of  France  was  added  to  the  northern  and  west- 
ern possessions  which  were  accumulating  under 
Philip's  control. 

Poor-spirited  as  was  Jolin,  now  called  "  Lack- 
land," he  could  not  see  himself  deprived  of  his 
own  land  and  his  rival  growing  rich  in  other 
provinces  without  making  some  opposition.  He 
entered  into  a  coalition  with  the  German  emperor 
and  with  the  Count  of  Flanders,  who  was  one  of 
Philip's  important  vassals.  Philip  defeated  the 
combined  armies  in  the  battle  of  Bouvines  (1214) 
and  thereby  made  himself  the  most  powerful 
monarch  in  Europe.  The  success  of  the  citizen 
soldiery  established  the  reputation  of  the  bur- 
gesses as  strong  and  intelligent  fighters  and 
thereby  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  nobles  who 
were  nursing  plans  of  rebellion  Hke  those  of  the 
captured  Count  of  Flanders.  Yet  nobles  were 
one  with  burgesses  in  rejoicing  over  John's  final 
dismissal  from  any  governing  part  in  northern 
France  and  over  the  defeat  of  the  intruding  Ger- 
mans. Never  before  in  all  her  history  had  there 
been  so  universal  a  feeling  of  what  it  meant  to 
be  a  Frenchman  and  to  serve  a  country  whose 
unity  was  symbolized  by  a  king  personally  strong, 
strongly  supported,  in  very  truth  the  head  con- 
trolling the  members. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  same  period 
that  established  the  supremacy  of  the  king  of 


76  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

France  was  marked  in  England  by  the  check  to 
the  royal  domination  administered  to  John  Lack- 
land when  the  barons  wrested  from  him  the 
Magna  Charta.  Historians  of  other  countries 
are  apt  to  speak  of  the  French  as  volatile,  ca- 
pricious, delighting  in  revolutions,  of  which  the 
troubled  fourscore  years  from  1789  to  1871  are 
examples.  It  might  be  well  to  remember  that 
the  English,  who  pride  themselves  on  being 
neither  volatile  nor  capricious,  were  less  patient 
than  the  men  across  the  Channel.  They,  too, 
made  their  stand  against  aristocratic  privilege, 
and  they  did  it  five  hundred  years  before  the 
long-suffering  French;  they,  too,  cut  off  their 
monarch's  head,  and  Charles  went  to  the  block 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  Louis  mounted 
the  guillotine.  Action  and  reaction  are  equal, 
prolonged  repression  must  result  in  correspond- 
ing expression.  The  evils  of  five  centuries  are 
quickly  cured  if  less  than  one  century  is  devoted 
to  the  healing. 

After  the  battle  of  Bouvines  the  victorious 
army  marched  to  Paris  in  a  trimnph  which  was 
participated  in  by  every  village  along  the  way. 
Every  parish  church  held  a  service  of  thanks- 
giving, every  crossroads  was  packed  with  shout- 
ing peasants  doing  homage  to  the  king,  admiring 
the  nobles,  and,  above  all,  wonderstruck  at  the 
new  military  force  whose  possible  value  they 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  77 

could  see,  even  if  it  was  not  yet  entirely  clear 
how  great  would  be  the  weight  of  the  "  mailed 
fist  "  of  the  bourgeois. 

At  the  very  time  when  the  power  of  the  king 
was  becoming  dominant,  however,  democracy 
showed  itself  even  with  impudence  in  the  fab- 
liaucc,  the  popular  tales  which  betrayed  the  jeal- 
ous spirit  of  the  populace  toward  the  nobles  and 
the  clergy.  These  verses,  marked  by  the  esprit 
gaulois  were  characteristic  of  the  period  of  the 
early  middle  ages  as  were  also  the  chansons  de 
geste  which  stirred  the  crusaders  by  their  recital 
of  the  valorous  deeds  of  accredited  heroes. 
*'  Renard  the  Fox,"  a  long  epic  of  three  centuries' 
growth,  burlesques  every  aspect  of  the  social  life 
of  the  middle  ages,  and  its  delicious  fooling  paints 
a  more  vivid  and  more  intimate  picture  than 
does  the  pen  of  any  chronicler.  These  lighter 
forms  were  not  representative  of  all  the  thought 
of  the  period,  for  Abelard's  thesis,  ancient  and 
ever  new,  that  we  should  not  believe  what  we  do 
not  understand,  and  Saint  Bernard's  refutation 
of  such  a  lack  of  faith  were  the  most  prominent 
instances  of  a  mental  activity  that  fomid  lodg- 
ment in  schools  and  expression  in  pulpit  con- 
troversy and  rostrum  argument.  Now,  too,  the 
professions  and  the  arts  no  longer  were  confined 
to  the  monasteries,  but  laymen  became  teachers 
and  writers  and  artists  and  craftsmen. 


78  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  opportunities  of  meeting  in  Paris  like- 
minded  people  from  all  over  Europe  for  a  long 
time  had  drawn  students  to  Paris,  and  schools 
were  endowed  for  men  of  different  nationalities. 
Philip  united  them  under  the  jm'isdiction  of  the 
University.  From  very  early  days  the  region  on 
the  south  bank,  just  across  from  the  eastern  end 
of  the  Cite  and  extending  up  Mont  Sainte 
Genevieve  has  been  given  over  to  students.  In 
the  church  of  Saint  Julien-le-Pauvre  they  met 
with  their  instructors.  Across  the  alley  on  which 
the  church  faces  still  stands  the  house  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  Petit  Chatelet  before  whom  the 
young  men  appeared  to  adjust  their  differences. 
Behind  the  church  runs  the  rue  du  Fouarre  on 
which  many  colleges  were  situated,  among  them 
the  Schools  of  France,  Normandy,  Germany 
and  Picardy.  In  1202  this  thoroughfare  was 
called  rue  des  Escohers,  but  when,  by  way  of  re- 
sponding to  Pope  Urban  Vs  appeal  for  self- 
denial,  the  students  in  the  classes  sat  on  bundles 
of  straw  bought  in  the  near-by  hay  market,  the 
street  changed  its  name  to  "  Straw  Street," 
to  commemorate  their  good  intentions.  Near 
by,  to-day,  is  a  modern  street  called  "  Dante," 
after  the  Italian  poet,  who  was  not  behind  his 
contemporaries  in  studying  in  Paris.  Emile 
Loubet,  the  former  president  of  the  French 
Rei^ublic,    lives    at    number    5    on    this    street. 


_''.•     -_■%'•////.-    I///  ^^tfMI    i/r     ,Jf'//4/i/''     ^     / f^'/f    </'' 


THE     LOUVRE    IN     THE    TIME    OF    PHILIP    AUGUSTUS. 
From  ail  old  ])iiut  owned  l)y  the  City  of  Paris. 


FRAGMENT    OF    THE    WALL    OF    PHILIP    AUGUSTUS    AS    IT    LOOKS    TO-DAY. 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  79 

Not  far  away  is  the  rue  des  Anglais,  which  was 
laid  out  before  Philip  Augustus's  reign  and  took 
its  name  from  the  English  students  who  fre* 
quented  it.  A  little  farther  west,  creeping  in  the 
dark  between  tilted  houses,  is  the  street,  called 
since  the  fourteenth  centmy,  "  of  the  Parcliment 
Workers,"  and  in  the  thirteenth  century  rue  des 
Escrivains.  Two  of  the  tiny  dwellings,  num- 
bers 6  and  7,  belonged  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury to  the  English  cathedral  of  Norwich, 
which  used  them  as  dormitories  for  the  scholars 
which  it  supported  at  the  French  seat  of  learn- 
ing. 

These  houses  are  built  around  a  microscopic 
courtyard,  a  plan  persistent  in  France  through 
many  hundred  years.  It  is  a  plan  seen  to-day  in 
many  modern  dwellings,  in  the  Banque  de 
France,  a  seventeenth  century  building,  in  the 
eastern  end  of  the  Louvre  and  in  its  pavement 
record  of  the  earliest  quadrangular  Louvre.  It 
is  a  plan  making  for  light  and  air  and  it  often 
permits  the  planting  of  a  small  garden  within. 
The  idea  sprang  fom  the  necessity  of  a  fortifica- 
tion's preserving  a  stolid  and  impenetrable  ex- 
terior w^hile  the  life  of  its  tenants,  carried  on 
within  the  shelter  of  its  walls,  had  something  of 
pleasant  environment. 

So  closely  does  Paris  cling  to  her  ancient  tradi- 
tions  that   even   in   the   twentieth   century   the 


80  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

schools  and  their  students  are  removed  but  a  few 
yards  from  their  medieval  location.  The 
students  of  to-day,  too,  have  their  own  traditions 
of  dress  and  behavior  which  mark  them  as  in- 
habitants of  the  "  Latin  Quarter  "  even  if  they 
are  kodaked  at  Versailles  on  a  holiday  afternoon. 
They  assume  for  themselves  now  privileges  which 
Philip  Augustus  encouraged  them  to  take  by 
making  them  free  from  the  regulations  which  the 
other  citizens  obeyed  and  subject  only  to  the  ec- 
clesiastical tribunal.  This  difference  of  attitude 
caused  many  riots  in  the  thirteenth  century  and 
they  break  out  afresh  in  the  twentieth  with  a 
frequency  which  helps  to  occupy  any  idle  mo- 
ments of  the  city  police. 

So  great  were  the  attractions  of  Paris  offered 
not  only  to  students  but  to  merchants  that  the 
population  of  the  city  grew  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  under  Philip's  rule.  The  pop- 
ulous section  on  the  south  or  left  bank  of  the 
river  was  matched  by  another  on  the  north, 
chiefly  inhabited  by  merchants  and  artisans,  and 
both  of  them  were  larger  than  the  original  Cite 
on  the  island.  The  Cite  was  the  administrative 
and  ecclesiastical  center,  for  the  king's  palace 
was  not  his  only  residence  but  also  a  palace  of 
justice,  and  crowded  into  the  limits  set  by  the 
Seine  were  so  many  churches  that  one  of  them 
served  a  parish  of  only  twenty  houses. 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  81 

The  northward  growth  of  the  city  encroached 
upon  the  Halles  as  it  had  upon  the  cemetery  of 
the  Innocents,  and  Phihp  recognized  the  neces- 
sity of  enclosing  and  roofing  the  markets.  Such 
utihties  as  pubhc  ovens,  too,  which  had  been  a 
monopoly  of  some  of  the  religious  houses,  he 
opened  to  the  citizens  at  large.  He  also  insti- 
tuted a  water  supply,  which,  though  far  from 
ample,  since  it  allowed  only  two  quarts  a  day  for 
each  inliabitant,  was  an  earnest  of  good  inten- 
tions. 

The  original  tower  of  the  Louvre  seemed  to 
Philip  a  good  nucleus  for  an  enlarged  fortifica- 
tion which  should  be  at  the  same  time  a  palace  to 
which  he  might  withdraw  from  the  palace  in  the 
crowded  Cite.  Around  the  old  donjon  he  built 
a  rectangular  fortress,  its  short  end  lying  along 
the  river,  its  entrance  defended  by  another  huge 
tower  whose  work  of  protection  was  reinforced 
by  smaller  towers,  by  a  surrounding  wall,  and  by 
a  moat.  Down  beneath  the  treasures  of  to-day's 
Louvre  and  out  under  the  courtyard  still  run 
passages  of  this  old  building.  They  twist  and 
turn  within  walls  of  rough  masonry  and  in- 
flame the  imagination  with  thoughts  of  adventur- 
ous possibilities,  of  plots  and  prisoners  and  es- 
capes, until  they  land  the  wanderer  of  a  sudden 
in  the  coal  bin  of  the  hopelessly  up-to-date  fur- 
nace that  heats  the  Hall  of  the  Caryatides. 


82  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Across  the  river  on  the  south  bank  stood  an- 
other huge  tower,  best  known  by  its  later  name, 
the  Tout'  de  Nesle.  It  was  from  this  tower,  that, 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  Jeanne  of  Burgundy, 
widow  of  Phihp  the  Long,  is  reputed  to  have  had 
the  people  who  displeased  her  dropped  into  the 
river.  Villon's  "  Ballad  of  Old-Time  Ladies  " 
says : 

*'  And  where,  I  pray  you,  is  the  Queen, 
Who  willed  that  Buridan  should  steer 
Sewed  in  a  sack's  mouth,  down  the  Seine?  " 

Buridan  was  a  professor  in  the  University, 
and  the  author  of  the  famous  assertion  that  if 
an  ass  were  placed  between  two  equally  attrac- 
tive bundles  of  hay  he  would  starve  to  death  be- 
fore he  could  determine  which  one  to  eat  first. 
The  tale  goes  that  Buridan's  friends,  fearing 
the  outcome  of  his  visit  to  the  tower,  were  wait- 
ing in  a  boat  and  rescued  him.  Dumas'  play, 
"  La  Tour  de  Nesle  "  is  based  on  the  legends 
surroimding  this  old  fortification,  now  existent 
only  in  a  tablet  placed  on  the  eastern  wing  of 
the  Institute  to  mark  its  site. 

A  chain  across  the  stream  from  the  Louvre 
to  the  Tour  de  Nesle  regulated  navigation,  for 
it  could  only  be  taken  down  for  the  passage  of 
boats  by  permission  of  the  provost. 

Starting  south  from  the  Tour  de  Nesle  ran 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  83 

the  wall  whose  erection  Philip  commanded  when 
he  first  went  off  to  the  wars,  that  his  fair  city 
might  be  well  protected  in  his  absence.  It  was 
higher  and  heavier  than  its  predecessors,  with  a 
battlemented  top  to  hide  soldiers  in  action  and 
frequent  towers  which  served  the  triple  purpose 
of  sheltering  extra  men,  of  storing  weapons  and 
of  affording  points  of  observation  somewhat 
above  the  wall  itself.  A  dozen  gates  opened  each 
upon  a  drawbridge  whose  Hfting  compelled  the 
invader  to  cross  a  ditch  in  some  way  before  he 
attempted  to  storm  an  entrance. 

Leaving  the  Tour  de  Nesle  the  wall  swept 
around  Mont  Sainte  Genevieve  and  back  to  the 
river  at  a  point  about  opposite  the  center  of  the 
present  lie  Saint  Louis,  east  of  the  Cite.  On  the 
right  bank  it  ran  north  and  west,  keeping  below 
the  Priory  of  Saint  Martin  which  lay  outside  of 
it.  Its  course  is  traced  on  the  pavement  of  the 
eastern  courtyard  of  the  present  Louvre,  part 
of  one  of  the  towers  is  extant  in  a  government 
pawnshop  in  the  Marais,  a  considerable  section 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  enclosure  beside  Saint  Julien- 
le-Pauvre,  and  its  course  is  marked  elsewhere  by 
an  occasional  fragment,  by  some  street  named 
Fosse,  or  by  a  tablet  placed  by  the  Commission 
of  Old  Paris,  which  is  doing  excellent  antiqua- 
rian work  in  the  preservation  and  marking  of 
historic  buildings  and  localities. 


84  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  Paris  of  Philip  Augustus  was  but  a  thir- 
tieth part  as  large  as  the  Paris  of  to-day,  but  it 
had  three  hundred  streets.  Narrow,  dark  and 
dirty  alleys  they  were,  the  best  of  them,  and  even 
in  this  early  century  the  devasting  epidemics  of 
a  later  day  were  not  unknown.  A  contemporary 
historian  says :  "  One  day  the  king  was  in  his 
castle  of  the  Louvre  and  was  walking  back  and 
forth,  pondering  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom, 
when  there  passed  a  heavy  wagon  whose  wheels 
stirred  up  the  street  and  caused  an  insupportable 
odor  to  rise  from  it.  When  he  smelled  this  stench 
Philip  experienced  a  profound  nausea.  At  once 
he  summoned  the  provost  and  the  burgesses  of 
the  city  and  he  gave  them  orders  to  pave  the 
streets  with  large  stones  and  strong,  which  was 
done." 

"  AVliich  was  done  in  part "  would  have  been 
nearer  the  truth,  for,  although  one  public-spirited 
citizen  gave  a  large  sum,  most  of  the  contribu- 
tions were  of  the  nature  of  samples  from  the 
shopkeepers'  stocks,  and  the  actual  amount  of 
paving  accomplished  was  very  little  for  many 
centuries  to  come.  As  late  as  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury Montaigne  was  deploring  the  evil  odors  of 
the  city  he  loved  so  well,  and  Arthur  Young,  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth,  compared  the  cleanli- 
ness of  Paris  most  unfavorably  with  that  of 
London.     In  Philip's  reign  ladies  seldom  went 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  85 

afoot,  so  thick  was  the  mud,  composed  of  inde- 
scribable filth,  and  knights  had  good  need  of 
armor  in  times  of  peace  to  protect  them  from 
buckets  of  water,  poured  casually  into  the  streets 
from  abutting  houses  with  only  a  cry  of  "  Gave 
Veau  "  as  a  warning. 

Nevertheless,  in  days  of  festival  these  same 
narrow  streets  might  be  gorgeous  to  behold. 
When  Philip  Augustus  returned  from  the  bat- 
tle of  Bouvines  the  whole  city  came  out  to  meet 
him.  Chanting  priests,  singing  girls,  shouting 
urchins  ushered  him  into  a  town  decorated  to  do 
him  honor.  From  windows  and  balconies  hung 
rich  tapestries  and  carpets;  banners  waved,  and 
the  sunlight  flashed  on  glittering  spearpoints  by 
day  as  bonfires  made  breastplates  glitter  at  night. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  all  history  so  com- 
plete an  instance  of  a  nation's  spiritual  and 
mental  growth  expressing  itself  in  outer  form 
rapidly  and  in  transcendent  beauty  as  is  exhibited 
in  the  evolution  of  Gothic  architecture  in  France 
in  the  twelfth  century.  It  originated  in  the  lie 
de  France  and  within  the  span  of  this  hundred 
years  Paris  was  rebuilt,  bursting  into  the  elegance 
and  grace  of  the  new  style  from  the  heaviness  of 
the  old  as  a  butterfly  casts  aside  its  constraining 
cocoon. 

The  nave  of  Saint  Germain-des-Pres,  is  an 
example    of    the    heavy-pillared,    round-arched 


86  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

building  of  the  Romanesque  era.  The  desire  to 
give  visible  form  to  the  universal  feeling  of  up- 
lift brought  to  birth  the  ogive  or  pointed  arch 
which  gave  its  name  to  "  ogival "  or  Gothic 
architecture  best  shown,  of  course,  in  churches. 
Higher  and  higher  the  arches  pointed  skyward; 
lancet  windows  above  helped  to  light  the  deep 
"vessel"  or  nave  (from  the  Latin  navis,  ship) 
and  the  roof  crowned  all  at  a  dizzying  height. 

Satisfying  as  this  was  from  the  point  of  view 
of  beauty  and  of  symbolism,  it  gave  rise  to 
serious  practical  questions.  How  were  such  lofty 
walls  to  be  made  strong  enough  to  support  the 
outward  push  of  the  roof?  The  thirteenth  cen- 
tury had  come  about  before  the  problem  was 
solved  entirely.  By  that  time  outer  buttresses 
had  been  evolved  strong  enough  for  their  work 
yet  so  delicate  that  they  were  called  "  flying," 
spread  as  they  were  like  the  wings  of  a  bird. 

Decoration  became  more  beautiful,  also. 
Romanesque  pillar  capitals  had  been  adorned 
with  conventional  vegetation  and  strange  beasts 
whose  originals  never  were  on  land  or  sea.  The 
sculptors  of  the  ogival  period  took  Nature  as 
their  teacher  and  France  as  their  schoolroom  and 
carved  the  leaves  and  flowers  and  fruits  that  grew 
about  them,  the  oak  and  willow  and  rose-bush 
and  clover  and  grape.  Pinnacles  gave  an  effect 
of  lightness  to  exteriors  and  their  edges  were 


<!!^=  'iS^'^'Ji^^^iikM^-- 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  87 

decorated  with  crochets  (furled  leaves)  and 
tipped  with  fleurons  or  bunches  of  budding 
leaves. 

High  heavenward  sprang  spires  from  the 
western  end  of  the  churches,  this  western  fa9ade 
forming  an  imposing  entrance  to  the  nave 
through  whose  length  the  choir  and  altar  at  the 
eastern  end,  beyond  the  transepts,  looked  mys- 
teriously far  away.  From  the  roof  at  the  junc- 
tion of  the  nave  and  the  transepts  a  slender  spire 
called  a  fleche  (arrow)  shot  upward  with  ex- 
quisite grace. 

The  introduction  of  ogival  architecture  had  a 
sudden  and  revolutionary  effect  upon  the  art  of 
painting.  Before  the  twelfth  century  mural 
decorations  and  the  illumination  of  manuscripts 
had  been  the  only  instances  in  France.  When 
the  broad  expanses  of  wall  above  the  semi- 
circular Romanesque  arches  vanished  with  the 
coming  of  the  pointed  arch  there  was  no  place 
left  except  the  windows  for  the  depiction  of  the 
lives  of  the  saints,  of  scenes  from  Old  Testament 
history  and  from  the  hfe  of  Christ.  Glass  then 
became  the  artist's  medium. 

The  most  illustrious  examples  of  the  new  style 
to  be  found  in  modern  Paris  are  the  cathedral 
of  Notre  Dame,  the  refectory  of  Saint  Martin- 
des-Champs,  and  the  Sainte  Chapelle  built  by 
Saint  Louis  in  the  thirteenth  century. 


88  TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  cornerstone  of  Notre  Dame  was  laid  by 
Pope  Alexander  III  in  the  reign  of  Louis  VII 
(1163.)  The  new  cathedral  covered  the  spot 
where  the  Nautae  had  erected  their  altar  to 
Jupiter,  replaced  the  many  times  repaired 
Merovingian  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame,  and  at- 
tached itself  to  the  ancient  church  of  Saint 
Etienne,  the  original  cathedral  of  Paris  which 
stood  where  Notre  Dame's  sacristy  now  rises. 
This  old  edifice  was  not  taken  down  until  the  new 
was  sufficiently  advanced  for  the  altar  to  be  con- 
secrated, so  that  service  beneath  the  cathedral 
roof  never  was  interrupted  even  for  a  day.  The 
relics  were  removed  to  a  new  Saint  Etienne's, 
built  on  Mont  Sainte  Genevieve. 

Construction  went  on  briskly  through  Louis* 
reign  and  the  four  decades  of  Philip  Augustus's 
and  the  three  years  of  his  successor's,  Louis  VIII, 
and  work  ended  on  the  superb  edifice  in  the 
twentieth  year  of  the  rule  of  Saint  Louis.  It  was 
a  "  quick  job  "  — eighty- four  years — as  building 
went  in  those  days.  The  great  mass  never  has 
been  completed,  for  the  spires  of  the  original 
plan  have  not  been  added.  It  has  had  its  days 
of  decay  and  of  restoration,  the  last  attempt  hav- 
ing returned  its  elaborate  west  fa9ade  as  closely 
as  possible  to  its  appearance  in  Philip  Augustus's 
day  when  it  was  finished. 

Inside  and  out  it  is  magnificently  harmonious. 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  89 

a  worthy  setting  for  the  scenes  it  has  witnessed — 
scenes  splendid,  startling,  tragic.  Here  Saint 
Louis  brought  the  Crown  of  Thorns  and  here 
his  funeral  took  place.  Here  Philip  the  Fair  rode 
in  on  horseback  after  the  battle  of  Mons-en- 
Puelle  and  here  he  convened  the  first  States  Gen- 
eral— the  first  Assembly  wherein  the  burgesses 
were  represented.  Henry  VI  of  England  was 
crowned  here,  so  was  Marie  Stuart,  and  here  it 
was  that  Napoleon  set  the  imperial  crown  upon 
his  own  head  and  then  crowned  Josephine.  Here 
Henry  IV,  turned  Catholic  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  possession  of  Paris,  heard  his  first  mass, 
and  here,  during  the  Revolution,  a  ballet  dancer 
posed  in  the  choir  as  the  Goddess  of  Reason,  "  in 
place  of  the  former  Holy  Sacrament." 

Officially,  the  cathedral  is  the  hub  of  France, 
for  measurements  along  the  national  highways 
are  all  made  from  the  foot  of  its  towers.  Deep 
in  the  hearts  of  the  French  people,  too,  is  love  for 
this  splendid  fane.  They  love  it  as  a  summary 
of  Gothic  beauty,  as  a  storehouse  of  history,  and, 
above  all,  as  the  moral  fortress  of  the  city, 
sheltering  as  it  does  "  Notre  Dame  de  Paris," 
the  guardian  of  the  city  for  five  hundred  years. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS 

THE  son  of  Philip  Augustus,  Louis  VIII, 
whose  accession  was  celebrated  in  Paris 
with  high  festivity,  reigned  for  three  dis- 
mal, unprofitable  years.  His  wife,  Blanche  of 
Castile,  reared  to  a  manhood  of  conscientious 
rectitude  their  son,  Louis  IX,  whose  virtues  were 
recognized  by  canonization  less  than  thirty  years 
after  his  death. 

It  has  happened,  oddly  enough,  that  although 
women  are  forbidden  by  the  fourteenth  century 
construction  of  the  Salic  Law  to  sit  on  the  throne 
of  France  as  sovereigns,  no  country  has  been 
more  frequently  ruled  by  women.  Sometimes 
the  queen-mother  has  acted  as  regent  during  the 
minority  of  her  son,  sometimes  the  queen  has 
steered  the  ship  of  state  while  her  husband  was 
out  of  the  country  on  war  intent.  Isabella  of 
Hainault,  Philip  Augustus's  first  wife,  was  re- 
gent when  her  lord  went  to  the  third  crusade  in 
1189;  Blanche  of  Castile  governed  her  son's 
kingdom  for  ten  years  (1226-1236)  ;  Anne  de 
Beaujeu,  daughter  of  Louis  XI,  guided  the 
realm  of  her  brother,  Charles  VIII,  from  1483- 

90 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  91 

1490;  Louise  de  Savoie  ruled  (1515)  until  her 
son,  Francis  I  came  of  age,  and  was  again 
entrusted  with  the  power  when  he  went  upon  one 
of  his  many  mihtary  expeditions;  Catharine  de 
Medicis,  the  mother  of  three  kings — Francis  II, 
Charles  IX  and  Henry  III — began  her  career 
as  a  ruler  when  her  husband,  Henry  II,  was 
warring  with  Germany  (1552),  continued  it 
unofficially  during  the  short  reign  of  Francis 
II,  was  legal  regent  (1560)  during  the  minority 
of  Charles  IX,  and  enjoyed  a  long  continuance 
of  influence  because  of  his  and  his  brother  Henry 
Ill's  weakness  of  character  which  she  herself 
had  fostered;  Marie  de  Medicis  (1610)  played 
havoc  with  Henry  IV's  reorganized  France  dur- 
ing the  long  minority  of  her  son,  Louis  XIII; 
Maria  Theresa  controlled  the  kingdom  of  Louis 
XIV  while  the  "Sun  King  "  was  carrying  war 
into  Holland ;  Marie  Louise  was  declared  regent 
when  Napoleon  left  France  (1812-1814)  to  meet 
the  allied  forces  of  Austria,  England,  Prussia, 
Russia,  and  Sweden;  and  Eugenie  took  her  hus- 
band's place  when  Napoleon  III  fought  against 
Austria  (1859)  and  again  (1870)  when  he  left 
his  country,  never  to  return  to  it,  during  the  ill- 
advised  contest  with  Prussia. 

Blanche  of  Castile  was  a  person  of  ex- 
traordinary political  intelligence,  tact  and  ad- 
ministrative  ability.      The   years   of  her   son's 


92         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

minority  were  made  turbulent  by  unruly  vassals 
who  thought  to  take  advantage  of  the  inex- 
perience of  a  woman,  yet  the  queen-regent  proved 
herself  able  to  cope  with  every  situation  that 
arose.  She  endeared  herself  and  the  young  king 
to  the  burgesses  by  appealing  to  them  for  sup- 
port against  the  lords,  and  the  lords  realized  the 
worth  of  the  citizens'  friendship.  On  one  occa- 
sion, when  the  bourgeois  of  Paris  set  forth  to 
meet  and  protect  their  young  master  who  was 
surrounded  by  foes  at  some  distance  from  the 
city,  the  nobles,  hearing  the  news,  gave  up  their 
iniquitous  intentions  and  went  to  their  homes. 
Indeed,  it  was  their  lack  of  cooperation  among 
themselves  that  enabled  Louis  all  through  his 
reign  to  strengthen  the  royal  power  at  the  ex- 
pense of  that  of  his  subjects. 

In  her  treatment  of  these  troublesome  lords 
Blanche  was  not  always  obliged  to  use  such  stern 
measures  as  force  of  arms.  Her  armory  was  full 
of  woman's  weapons,  for  she  was  handsome 
and  gracious,  and  her  manner  and  charm  often 
brought  about  conclusions  which  she  might  not 
have  reached  by  argument.  In  spite  of  the  con- 
stant uprisings  and  conspiracies  with  which  she 
had  to  contend  the  kingdom  as  a  whole  did  not 
degenerate,  and  Philip  Augustus's  strong  foun- 
dation was  not  undermined.  More  and  more 
power  became  centralized  in  the  throne,  Louis 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  93 

pursuing  from  a  single-hearted  belief  that  such 
a  concentration  was  best  for  his  people,  the 
policy  which  his  grandfather  undertook  for 
ambition's  sake. 

Had  Louis  followed  his  personal  inclinations 
he  would  have  entered  the  religious  life.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  Blanche  encouraged  this 
spirit  in  him,  not  because  it  would  have  been 
possible  for  him  to  have  given  up  his  throne,  but 
because,  if  his  interests  were  involved  elsewhere 
he  would  not  interfere  with  his  mother's  rule  of 
his  kingdom.  Blanche's  failing  was  jealousy. 
Jealous  even  of  her  own  child,  she  continued  to 
force  her  influence  upon  Louis  after  he  was  of 
age.  Jealousy  moved  her  to  interfere  between 
him  and  his  wife,  Margaret  of  Provence,  so 
that  they  had  to  meet  by  stealth.  She  even  took 
him  from  his  wife's  bedside  when  she  was 
thought  to  be  dying.  Naturally  such  an  atti- 
tude did  not  endear  her  to  her  daughter-in-law, 
and  Margaret,  envious  perhaps,  in  her  turn  be- 
came ambitious  for  power  wliich  she  was  not 
competent  to  wield.  Who  shall  say  that  Louis 
had  an  easy  life  between  an  ambitious  mother  to 
whom  his  dignity  did  not  permit  him  to  give  way, 
and  a  wife,  finely  courageous,  but  without  talents 
of  the  larger  sort!  Only  the  fact  that  he  loved 
both  women  tenderly  could  have  given  him  the 
wisdom  to  steer  his  course  straight. 


94         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  English  king,  Henry  III,  became  in- 
volved in  a  quarrel  between  Louis  and  one  of  his 
vassals,  and  invaded  France.  Louis  took  the 
oriflamme  from  Saint  Denis  and  went  against 
his  foes,  gaining  victory  after  victory  but  using 
his  gain  with  a  moderation  and  kindness  very 
different  from  the  custom  of  the  time.  After  the 
first  hurt  to  his  pride  had  worn  away  Henry 
was  of  a  mind  to  be  glad  to  accept  Louis'  offer 
to  give  back  to  him  such  of  his  holdings  in 
France  as  had  been  captured  in  the  recent  war, 
provided  that  Henry  renounced  others  for  all 
time,  and  admitted  himself  the  vassal  of  France 
for  those  he  still  retained. 

The  ceremony  of  swearing  the  oath  to  Louis 
took  place  in  the  square  (now  the  Place 
Dauphine)  at  the  western  end  of  the  palace. 
Amid  a  great  gathering  of  nobles  and  priests 
both  French  and  English,  Henry,  dressed  with 
no  sign  of  his  royal  state,  not  even  wearing 
sword,  spurs,  cape  or  head  covering,  knelt  before 
Louis,  laid  his  hands  in  his,  and  made  oath,  "  Sir, 
I  become  your  liegeman  with  mouth  and  hands, 
and  I  swear  and  promise  you  faith  and  loyalty, 
and  to  guard  your  right  according  to  my  power, 
and  to  do  fair  justice  at  your  summons  or  the 
summons  of  your  bailiff,  to  the  best  of  my  wit." 

Wise  as  he  was  in  the  rearing  of  his  children, 
just  to  his  people  so  that  even  the  quarrelsome 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  95 

lords  brought  their  troubles  to  his  Paris  court, 
generous  to  the  poor  and  merciful  to  the  afflicted, 
Louis  was  cruelly  harsh  to  those  whom  he 
considered  at  fault  on  the  score  of  religion. 
Heretics,  so-called,  he  punished  with  severity; 
blasphemers  he  caused  to  be  branded  on  the 
mouth,  saying  that  he  himself  would  consent 
to  be  branded  with  a  hot  iron  if  by  that  means 
all  profane  oaths  might  be  removed  from  his 
realm.  "  I  was  full  twenty-two  years  in  his  com- 
pany," says  de  Joinville,  "  and  never  heard  him 
swear  by  God  nor  His  Mother  nor  His  Saints. 
When  he  wished  to  affirm  anything  he  would  say 
'  Truly  that  was  so,'  or  '  Truly,  that  is  so.'  " 

On  one  occasion  when  he  had  commanded  the 
branding  of  a  Paris  burgher  the  decree  was 
harshly  criticised  by  the  people.  When  these 
same  folk  a  little  later  were  praising  the  king  for 
some  good  works  that  he  had  done  for  the  city 
he  said  that  he  expected  more  favor  from  God 
for  the  curses  that  his  branding  order  had 
brought  down  upon  his  head  than  for  the  honor 
that  he  received  for  these  good  works. 

Queen  Blanche  was  given  to  benevolence  and 
during  her  regency  set  her  son  an  example  which 
he  willingly  followed  throughout  his  life.  It 
was  she  who  excited  his  interest  in  continuing 
the  rebuilding  of  the  Hotel  Dieu,  the  hospital 
which  had  stood  in  one  guise  or  another  for  some 


96         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

half  dozen  centuries  on  the  south  side  of  the  Cite 
between  the  cathedral  and  the  river.  A  later 
annex  was  built  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Seine 
adjoining  Saint  Julien-le-Pauvre,  and  this  sec- 
tion was  not  demolished  until  1908,  although  the 
buildings  on  the  Cite  were  torn  down  and  the 
present  Hotel  Dieu  on  the  north  of  the  cathedral 
was  built  some  forty  years  ago. 

Louis'  philanthropic  leanings  included  an 
establishment  for  the  blind,  three  hundred 
("  Quinze-Vingts,"  "Fifteen-Twenties")  being 
sheltered  in  a  hospice  which  stood  near  the 
present  Palais  Royal,  but  is  now  established 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  town.  His  interest  in 
learning  moved  him  to  encourage  his  chaplain, 
Robert  de  Sorbon,  in  the  enlargement  of  the 
school  named  after  him,  the  Sorbonne,  which 
Robert  had  undertaken  at  first  for  poor  students, 
but  which,  imder  royal  patronage,  became  a 
renowned  theological  school.  It  has  always  been 
independent  in  attitude,  now  opposed  to  the 
Reformation,  now  to  the  Jesuits,  now  to  the 
Jansenists.  To-day  it  is  the  University  of  Paris, 
the  building  on  the  Mont  Sainte  Genevieve  being 
given  over  to  the  faculties  of  arts  and  sciences. 
Here  come  students  from  all  over  the  world  to 
listen  to  the  foremost  lecturers  of  France  in  a 
huge  edifice  which  about  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago  replaced  one  built  by  Richelieu.    With  the 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  97 

generosity  which  France  has  always  shown  in 
educational  matters  all  the  lectures  are  free. 
The  palace  on  the  Cite  remained  under  Louis 
the  heart  of  the  bustling  city  of  130,000  people. 
Here  he  came  after  his  wedding,  and  the  room 
that  he  occupied  was  used  by  many  succeeding 
monarchs  on  the  night  after  their  first  entry 
into  Paris.  The  king's  library,  built  as  a  part 
of  the  palace,  was  filled  with  the  work  of  several 
thousand  copyists.  Louis  threw  the  building 
open  to  young  students  as  well  as  to  old  scholars, 
and  loved  nothing  better  than  to  walk  about 
among  the  young  men  and  explain  their  tasks  to 
them.  In  the  palace  garden  the  king  used  to  sit 
and  administer  justice.    De  Joinville  says: 

"  Sometimes  have  I  seen  him,  in  summer,  go  to  do 
justice  among  his  people  in  the  garden  of  Paris,  clothed 
in  a  tunic  of  camlet,  a  surcoat  of  tartan  without  sleeves, 
and  a  mantle  of  black  taffeta  about  his  neck,  his  hair 
well  combed,  no  cap,  and  a  hat  of  white  peacock's  feath- 
ers upon  his  head.  And  he  would  cause  a  carpet  to  be 
laid  down,  so  that  we  might  sit  round  him,  and  all  the 
people  who  had  any  cause  to  bring  before  him  stood 
around.  And  then  would  he  have  their  causes  settled, 
as  I  have  told  you  afore  he  was  wont  to  do  in  the  wood 
of  Vincennes." 

Other  parts  of  the  palace  were  built  by  Saint 
Louis,  notably  the  vaulted  guard  hall  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  north  side.  The  ancient  round 
towers  belong  to  the  Conciergerie  where,  dur- 


98         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ing  the  Revolution,  Marie  Antoinette  and  many- 
others  as  brave  and  as  innocent  went  from  im- 
prisonment to  death  by  the  guillotine.  Queen 
Blanche  gave  her  name  to  an  existing  room  in 
one  of  the  towers. 

In  early  days  the  towers  must  have  been  an 
impressive  feature  of  the  building.  Their  foun- 
dations are  sunk  below  the  surface  of  the  river, 
and  where  the  king's  hall  opened  on  the  street 
at  the  water  level  these  massive  constructions, 
now  half  buried  by  the  quay,  rose,  tall  and  menac- 
ing on  the  island's  shore. 

'  The  Tour  de  I'Horloge,  the  square  tower  at 
the  corner,  replaces  an  early  Merovingian  tower 
on  the  same  spot.  The  oldest  public  clock  in 
France  still  tells  the  hour  from  its  scidptured 
canopy,  and  its  bell  gave  the  left  bank  signal 
for  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew. 

Unable  to  leave  his  royal  duties  for  the  monas- 
tery, as  he  would  have  liked,  Louis  showed  his 
leaning  by  the  fostering  of  many  religious  houses. 
Paris  was  filled  with  brethren  of  the  various 
orders,  later  to  become  a  doubtful  blessing,  but 
now  sincere,  useful,  typical  of  the  trusting  nature 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Louis  sat  at  their  feet 
in  spirit  as  he  did  literally  before  the  great, 
lecturers  of  the  University.  To  the  Louvre  he 
added  a  chapel. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  Crusades  would 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  99 

find  an  ardent  response  in  the  king.  He  went 
twice  to  the  East,  the  first  time  to  suffer  a  long 
captivity,  and  the  last  time  to  lose  his  life. 

It  was  through  the  crusades  that  Louis  became 
the  owner  of  the  Crown  of  Thorns  whose 
possession  gave  him  the  highest  pleasure  that  his 
life  knew.  Because  of  it  Paris  was  enriched 
by  one  of  its  most  beautiful  buildings.  The 
Emperor  Baldwin,  it  appears,  had  borrowed  a 
large  sum  of  money  from  some  merchants  of 
Venice,  giving  as  security  the  sacred  relic.  When 
he  failed  to  redeem  his  pledge  the  merchants 
sought  to  recoup  themselves.  Louis  regarded 
as  a  direct  gift  from  Heaven  this  opportunity 
to  secure  for  himself  and  his  kingdom  a  relic  so 
holy.  The  price  asked  was  about  $270,000,  an 
enormous  sum  for  that  time.  The  money  was 
raised,  however,  a  part  of  it  by  forced  contribu- 
tions from  the  Jews,  who  had  begun  to  drift  back 
to  France  because  their  usefulness  made  it  ex- 
pedient to  disregard  Phihp  Augustus's  edict  of 
banishment.  Messengers  carefully  selected  for 
their  probity  and  piety,  brought  the  Crown  from 
Italy  into  France.  It  was  encased  in  a  coffer 
of  gold  which  was  set  into  another  of  silver  and 
that  in  turn  into  a  box  of  wood. 

The  king,  dressed  as  a  penitent  and  barefooted, 
met  the  messengers  at  the  town  of  Sens,  about 
sixty  miles  from  Paris.    There  he  took  the  casket 


100         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

into  his  own  hands  and  walked  with  it  all  the  way 
to  the  city.  So  eager  were  the  crowds  to  see  the 
procession  that  it  could  move  but  at  the  slowest 
pace.  The  multitude  thickened  as  the  city  folk 
came  out  from  the  walls  to  join  in  reverencing 
the  treasure.  In  order  that  every  one  might  rest 
his  eyes  upon  it  Louis  caused  a  lofty  stand  to  be 
erected  in  an  open  spot  and  there  the  foremost 
of  the  clergy  of  France  took  turns  in  elevating 
the  Crown  for  the  crowds  to  see. 

At  Vincennes,  east  of  Paris,  the  monks  from 
the  Abbey  of  Saint  Denis  joined  the  escort. 
When  the  advance  was  renewed  Louis  again 
bore  the  sacred  casket  which  he  carried  to  a  spot 
of  safety  in  the  cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  which 
was  at  that  time  just  about  approaching  com- 
pletion. 

From  the  cathedral  Louis  removed  the  relic 
to  the  chapel  of  Saint  Nicholas,  attached  to  the 
palace,  so  that  it  might  be  under  his  close  supervi- 
sion, and  then,  in  an  ecstasy  of  reverence  he 
planned  for  its  shelter  a  building  which  should 
be  "  in  no  wise  like  the  houses  of  men,"  the  Sainte 
Chapelle.  Only  royal  chapels  received  the  title 
"  Sainte."  This  exquisitely  beautiful  structure 
is  indeed  royal,  as  it  is  truly  a  chapel,  small  and 
without  transepts.  The  lower  part  contains 
the  crypt  with  ogival  vaidting  which  the 
builder,  Pierre  de  Montereau,  the  architect  of 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  101 

the  refectory  of  Saint  Martin-des-Champs, 
learned,  perhaps,  from  the  Saracens.  This  part 
of  the  church  was  used  for  the  religious  services  of 
the  servants  of  the  palace.  It  has  been  restored 
recently  with  the  vivid  red  and  blue  and  gold  of 
its  original  decoration.  Above  is  the  main  body 
of  the  chapel,  with  no  entrance  except  that  into 
the  palace  whence  it  was  Louis's  habit  to  come 
twice  or  thrice  during  each  night  to  prostrate 
himself  before  the  altar.  The  chapel's  solid  walls 
reach  not  far  above  a  man's  head,  and  above  them 
is  a  glittering  mass  of  gorgeous  glass,  some  of  it 
the  original.  At  the  eastern  end  a  gilded  frame- 
work supports  the  platform  to  which  the  king 
ascended  by  a  tiny  staircase  on  the  left  side  to 
show  the  sacred  relic  to  the  devout.  Behind  him 
the  lower  part  of  the  western  window  was  of 
plain  glass  that  the  people  gathered  in  the  court- 
yard might  have  the  same  privilege  as  those  in- 
side. The  gold  and  jeweled  covering  of  the 
relic  was  seized  during  the  Revolution.  The 
Crown,  cased  in  glass,  is  now  in  the  sacristy  of 
Notre  Dame. 

The  chapel's  glass  tells  the  story  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  relic  to  France  and  has  portraits  of  the 
king  and  of  Queen  Blanche.  In  the  outside 
carving  as  well  as  in  the  inside  decoration  Louis's 
fleur-de-lis  and  his  mother's  towers  of  Castile  are 
repeated.    The  R  of  the  rex  stands  supported  by 


102         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

angels.  A  wealth  of  loving  ornament  enriches 
the  western  fa9ade. 

At  one  side  a  tiny  window  cut  slanting  in  the 
thickness  of  the  wall  is  the  only  opening  from  the 
chapel  into  a  private  room  built  on  to  the  outside 
by  Louis  XI  who  feared  assassination  if  he 
should  attend  mass  openly. 

The  fleche  now  rising  from  the  roof  dates  from 
1853  and  is  the  fourth  of  its  kind.  The  second 
was  burned,  and  the  third  destroyed  in  the 
Revolution.  It  is  wonderful  that  the  whole 
building  did  not  meet  a  similar  fate,  for  it  was 
used  as  a  storehouse  for  flour  and  received  no 
gentle  treatment.  To-day,  although  still  a  con- 
secrated edifice,  but  one  service  is  held  in  it  dur- 
ing the  year.  That  is  called  the  "  Red  Mass  " 
and  to  it  go  the  judiciaries,  clad  in  their  scarlet 
robes,  when  the  courts  open  in  the  autumn,  to 
celebrate  the  "  Mass  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Louis'  conscientiousness  as  a  sovereign  ex- 
tended even  to  the  business  details  of  the  city  of 
Paris,  now  so  grown  that  its  traffic  required  four 
bridges  to  knit  the  island  with  the  right  and  left 
banks.  The  king  established  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  not  a  parliament  in  the  English  sense  of 
the  word,  but  a  court  of  justice.  A  body  of 
watchmen  policed  the  streets.  The  guilds  and 
corporations  had  a  carefidly  developed  organiza- 
tion.   Municipal  administration  was  placed  under 


PARIS  OF  SAINT  LOUIS  103 

the  care  of  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants  and  a 
body  of  councillors.  The  king  was  represented 
by  the  Provost  of  Paris.  This  office  had  so  fallen 
into  disrepute  that  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
Louis  could  secure  any  one  to  undertake  the 
responsibility.  How  he  reformed  the  office  so 
that  the  holder  became  so  eager  to  serve  his 
fellow-citizens  that  he  slept,  all  dressed,  in  the 
Chatelet,  that  he  might  be  ready  to  do  his  duty 
at  any  hour,  DeJoinville  describes. 

"  The  provostship  of  Paris  was  at  that  time  sold  to 
the  citizens  of  Paris,  or  indeed  to  any  one ;  and  those 
who  bought  the  office  upheld  their  children  and  nephews 
in  wrongdoing;  and  the  young  folk  relied  in  their  mis- 
doings on  those  who  occupied  the  provostship.  For 
which  reason  the  mean  people  were  greatly  down- 
trodden. 

"  And  because  of  the  great  injustice  that  was  done, 
and  the  great  robberies  perpetuated  in  the  provostship, 
the  mean  people  did  not  dare  to  sojourn  in  the  king's 
land,  but  went  and  sojourned  in  other  provostships  and 
other  lordships.  And  the  king's  land  was  so  deserted 
that  when  the  provost  held  his  court,  no  more  than  ten 
or  twelve  people  came  thereto. 

"  With  all  this  there  were  so  many  malefactors  and 
thieves  in  Paris  and  the  country  adjoining  that  all  the 
land  was  full  of  them.  The  king,  who  was  very  diligent 
to  enquire  how  the  mean  people  were  governed  and  pro- 
tected, soon  knew  the  truth  of  this  matter.  So  he  for- 
bade that  the  office  of  provost  in  Paris  should  be  sold ; 
and  he  gave  great  and  good  wages  to  those  who  hence- 
forth should  hold  the  said  office.  And  he  abolished  all 
the  evil  customs  harmful  to  the  people;  and  he  caused 


104         TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

enquiry  to  be  made  throughout  the  kingdom  to  find  men 
who  would  execute  good  and  strict  justice,  and  not 
spare  the  rich  any  more  than  the  poor. 

"  Then  was  brought  to  his  notice  Stephen  Boileau, 
who  so  maintained  and  upheld  the  office  of  provost  that 
no  malefactor,  nor  thief,  nor  murderer  dared  to  remain 
in  Paris,  seeing  that  if  he  did,  he  was  soon  hung  or  ex- 
terminated; neither  parentage,  nor  lineage,  nor  gold, 
nor  silver  could  save  him.  So  the  king's  land  began  to 
amend,  and  people  resorted  thither  for  the  good  justice 
that  prevailed." 


CHAPTER  VII 

PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR 

WITH  the  ending  of  Saint  Louis'  life 
(in  1270)  such  stabihty  and  beauty  as 
he  had  achieved  for  his  kingdom 
seemed  to  pass  away.  The  fifteen  years'  reign 
of  his  son,  Philip  III,  was  lacking  in  eventful- 
ness.  He  was  with  his  father  on  the  Crusade 
that  cost  Louis  his  life,  and  he  came  back  to 
Paris,  the  "  king  of  the  five  coffins,"  bringing 
with  him  for  burial  at  Saint  Denis  not  only  his 
father's  body  but  that  of  his  uncle,  his  brother- 
in-law,  his  wife,  and  his  son.  Louis'  body  lay 
in  state  in  Notre  Dame. 

Philip  inherited  his  father's  gentleness  of 
spirit,  but  none  of  his  intelligence  or  administra- 
tive ability.  His  physical  courage  won  for  him 
the  nickname  of  "  the  Bold,"  but  it  was  through 
a  train  of  circumstances  with  which  he  seems  to 
have  had  little  to  do  and  not  through  war  that 
the  throne  became  enriched  by  the  acquisition  of 
some  valuable  territories  in  the  south. 

Probably,  also,  he  did  not  realize  that  when  he 
raised  to  the  nobility  a  certain  silversmith  whose 

105 


106       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

work  he  admired  he  struck  a  blow  at  the 
hereditary  pride  of  the  lords,  and  showed  a  new 
power  which  threatened  the  integrity  of  their 
class.  Naturally,  too,  it  encouraged  the  de- 
mocracy. 

A  comparatively  trivial  happening  of  this 
reign  shows  the  increasing  boldness  of  the  dem- 
ocratic spirit.  The  king  took  as  his  favorite  a 
man  who  had  been  his  father's  barber,  and  who 
probably  possessed  the  traditional  conversational 
charm  attaching  to  his  occupation.  When  Philip 
made  him  wealthy  with  lands,  houses  and  gold 
the  nobles  of  the  court  could  not  restrain  their 
jealousy,  and  accusations  charging  him  with  the 
medieval  equivalent  of  graft  and  even  with 
baser  crimes  were  soon  so  persistent  and  ap- 
parently so  well-proven  that  even  his  royal  master 
either  was  convinced  or  thought  it  wise  to  seem 
to  believe.  At  any  rate  the  man  was  hanged  in 
company  with  Paris  thieves  of  the  meaner  sort. 
To  the  commonalty  of  Paris  who  were  not  in  a 
position  to  hear  the  whispers  and  accusations  of 
the  court  this  seemed  an  unmerited  punishment, 
and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  express  vivid  opinions 
concerning  the  victim  of  what  they  supposed  to 
be  aristocratic  greed. 

When  an  aristocrat  engaged  in  petty  graft  his 
reproof  was  not  so  swiftly  administered.  En- 
guerrand  de  Marigny,  under  whose  direction  the 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  107 

palace  was  enlarged  by  Philip  the  Bold's  son, 
Philip  the  Fair,  was  accused  of  charging  rental 
for  the  booths  along  the  Galerie  des  Merciers 
which  connected  the  Great  Hall  with  the  Sainte 
Chapelle  and  whose  stalls  were  supposed  to  be 
given  rent  free  to  tradespeople  whose  goods 
might  be  of  interest  to  the  folk  who  had  daily- 
tasks  at  the  palace.  Nothing  came  of  the  ac- 
cusation, however,  unless  it  may  be  thought  to 
have  been  punished  in  common  with  other  finan- 
cial misdeeds  of  which  Marigny  was  accused  by 
Philip  the  Fair's  successor,  Quarrelsome 
Louis — le  Hutin — ,  and  for  which  he  was 
hanged  on  the  Montfaucon  gallows  which  he  had 
built  when  he  was  Philip's  "  Coadjutor  and  In- 
spector." 

Guilty  or  not,  de  Marigny  was  set  a  poor  ex- 
ample by  his  master,  for  Philip  the  Fair  (1285- 
1314)  was  so  consumed  by  avarice  that  he  spared 
neither  friends,  vassals,  burgesses  nor  ecclesiastics 
if  by  taxing  them  or  dragging  them  into  warfare 
he  might  add  to  his  treasures.  His  greed  led  him 
into  the  pettiness  of  debasing  the  coinage,  and 
inspired  him  to  defy  the  pope  himself,  though  he 
claimed  sovereignty  over  all  the  monarchs  of 
Europe.  He  was  a  masterful  ruler — Philip — 
but  one  who  worked  for  his  own  interests  and  not 
for  those  of  his  people. 

Probably,  however,  his  subjects  were  entirely 


108       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

in  sympathy  with  Philip's  evident  desire  upon  his 
accession  to  know  where  he  stood  with  England. 
If  he  wanted  to  bring  about  an  immediate  quarrel 
his  wish  was  balked,  for  when  he  summoned 
Edward  I  to  appear  before  him  to  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance  "  for  the  lands  I  hold  of  you " 
the  English  king  came  to  Paris  without  a  whim- 
per and  offered  public  acknowledgment  to  his 
suzerain.  Philip  made  a  trifling  quarrel  between 
some  French  and  English  sailors  an  excuse  for 
war,  and  the  Flemish,  who  were  also  Philip's 
vassals,  were  soon  involved.  Flanders  manu- 
factured woolen  cloths  which  went  all  over 
Europe.  Raw  wool  was  imported  from  Eng- 
land. For  commercial  reasons  it  behooved  the 
Flemish  to  stay  at  peace  with  England  and  to  re- 
gard England's  enemies  as  their  enemies.  Philip 
was  willing  enough  to  be  considered  in  that  light 
since  it  gave  him  a  chance  to  invade  a  country 
whose  industries  with  their  resultant  wealth  fairly 
made  his  palms  tingle. 

Certainly  "  Hands  off "  was  not  his  motto. 
By  underhand  means  he  contrived  to  get  some 
of  Edward's  French  possessions  away  from  him 
and  he  forced  the  Parliament  of  Paris  to  ap- 
prove his  action.  Naturally  such  behavior  drove 
Philip's  opponents  together.  Philip  suspected 
some  new  coalition  and  ordered  the  Count  of 
Flanders  to  come  to  Paris.    Guy  obeyed  unwill- 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  109 

ingly,  and  he  was  confirmed  in  his  belief  that  it 
was  a  mistaken  step  when  Phihp,  upon  hearing 
that  Guy  and  Edward  were  arranging  a  marriage 
between  Edward's  son  Edward  and  Philippa, 
Guy's  daughter,  flew  into  a  rage  and  straight- 
way cast  the  count  and  his  two  sons  into  the  tower 
of  the  Louvre.  There  they  stayed  for  several 
months,  gaining  their  freedom  only  at  the  ex- 
pense of  poor  Philippa,  who,  as  hostage,  replaced 
them  within  the  grim  walls  on  the  river  bank. 

For  the  next  few  years  there  was  constant 
trouble  in  the  north.  The  imprisonment  of  an 
entirely  innocent  girl  gave  zest  to  the  Flemish 
rage  over  Philip's  arrogant  demands.  Guy 
betrothed  another  of  his  daughters  (he  had  eight 
daughters  and  nine  sons)  to  the  English  crown 
prince  and  sent  an  embassy  to  announce  the  new 
arrangement  to  Philip  and  to  tell  him  that  he 
considered  himself  freed  from  his  allegiance. 

In  the  resulting  war  Philip  was  victorious. 
Guy  and  his  immediate  followers  went  to  Paris 
and  gave  themselves  up  to  the  king  before  the 
steps  of  the  palace  while  the  queen  looked  on 
sneeringly  from  a  window.  It  was  not  Philip's 
nature  to  be  magnanimous  and  he  hurried  his 
enemy  off  to  prison.  With  the  queen  he  soon 
after  paid  a  visit  to  his  new  possessions  where 
Jeanne  was  filled  with  jealousy  of  the  rich  ap- 
parel of  the  women  of  Bruges.    "  There  are  only 


110       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

queens  in  Bruges,"  she  cried.  "  I  thought  that 
only  I  had  a  right  to  royal  state." 

The  governors  whom  Philip  put  over  Flanders 
suffered  from  their  master's  disease,  greed  of 
gold,  and  so  outrageous  was  their  behavior  that 
Flanders  revolted.  In  the  battle  of  Courtrai  the 
French  suffered  a  defeat  that  made  terrible  in- 
roads on  the  ranks  of  the  nobility.  This  loss  was 
of  benefit  to  the  personal  power  and  the  pocket- 
book  of  the  king,  however,  through  his  inherit- 
ance of  estates  and  his  privileges  as  guardian  of 
children  orphaned  by  the  battle. 

Philip  was  in  a  fury  over  the  check  to  his  arms 
at  Courtrai.  He  took  Guy  of  Flanders  out  of  the 
Louvre  and  sent  him  to  arrange  a  peace.  The 
Flemish  were  elated  by  success  and  would  not 
listen  to  him,  and  the  now  aged  count,  who  had 
been  promised  his  liberty  if  he  succeeded,  re- 
turned again  to  his  prison  and  to  the  death  that 
was  soon  to  give  him  a  long-delayed  tranquillity. 

The  war  went  on  with  varying  fortune. 
Philip's  chief  advantage  was  at  the  battle  of 
Mons-en-Puelle.  When  he  returned  to  Paris 
crowds  gathered  before  the  cathedral  to  see  their 
monarch  ride  in  full  equipment  into  Notre 
Dame,  bringing  his  horse  to  a  stand  before  the 
statue  of  Notre  Dame  de  Paris  to  whom  he  had 
vowed  his  armor  if  he  might  be  given  the  vic- 
tory.    During   the   Revolution   the   equestrian 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  111 

statue  which  had  worn  this  same  suit  of  mail 
for  four  centuries  and  a  half  was  broken  up  in 
the  destruction  that  was  meted  out  to  aU  rep- 
resentations of  royalty. 

The  struggle  with  Flanders  lasted  even  beyond 
Philip's  reign.  On  the  whole  the  results — direct 
and  indirect — of  the  contest  were  in  Philip's 
favor.  In  England  he  was  able  to  exert  a  more 
or  less  open  influence  through  his  daughter, 
Isabelle,  to  whom  the  often-betrothed  English 
prince  (who  came  to  the  throne  as  Edward  II) 
was  at  last  united.  Probably  the  bridegroom's 
pride  in  having  married  the  handsomest  woman 
of  her  country  was  somewhat  neutralized  by 
developments  of  her  character  which  won  for  her 
the  nickname  of  "  the  she-wolf  of  France." 

Meanwhile  Philip  became  involved  in  a  quarrel 
with  the  pope  that  lasted  for  many  years  and  set 
its  mark  for  all  time  on  the  relations  and  possi- 
ble relations  between  France  and  Rome.  In  the 
course  of  one  of  his  attempts  to  replenish  his 
treasury  Philip  insisted  that  imposts  should  be 
levied  on  the  clergy.  They  had  previously  been 
free,  and  they  turned  to  the  pope  to  support  their 
refusal.  This  action  precipitated  an  immediate 
quarrel  which  was  patched  up  but  broke  out 
again  under  pressure  of  the  king's  behavior. 
What  with  his  wars  and  what  with  his  natural 
acquisitiveness  Philip  was  always  needing  and  al- 


112       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ways  obtaining  money  in  ways  deserving  of 
sternest  censure.  Beside  debasing  the  coinage, 
he  had  used  infamous  methods  with  the  Jews,  he 
had  sold  patents  of  nobihty  to  men  considered 
unsuitable  to  enjoy  the  honor  of  belonging  to  the 
aristocracy,  and  he  had  given  their  freedom  to 
all  serfs  who  were  able  to  pay  for  it. 

The  king  rebuked  Philip  in  a  bull.  Philip  per- 
sonally superintended  its  burning  by  the  Paris 
hangman.  When  the  pope  sent  another  the  king 
summarized  it  for  the  popular  understanding 
into  "  Boniface  the  Pope  to  Philip  the  Fair, 
greeting.  Know,  O  Supreme  Prince,  that  thou 
art  subject  to  us  in  all  things."  This  document 
Philip  caused  to  be  read  aloud  in  many  public 
places  together  with  what  purported  to  be  his 
answer;  "  Philip  to  Boniface,  little  or  no  greet- 
ing. Be  it  known  to  thy  Supreme  Idiocy  that 
we  are  subject  to  no  man  in  political  matters. 
Those  who  think  otherwise  we  count  to  be  fools 
and  madmen." 

This  was  all  very  dashing  but  Philip  was 
shrewd  enough  to  see  that  it  was  necessary  when 
contending  with  a  power  that  proclaimed  itself 
accountable  only  to  God  to  have  the  support  of 
his  people.  He  summoned  to  meet  in  Notre 
Dame  (April  10,  1302)  the  first  National  As- 
sembly. It  was  called  the  States  General  be- 
cause it  was  made  up  of  representatives  of  the 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  113 

three  upper  classes  or  estates — the  clergy,  the 
nobility  and  the  burgesses  of  the  free  cities.  It 
may  well  have  been  a  satisfied  body  that  gathered 
under  the  Gothic  arches  of  the  great  church.  Its 
members  did  not  realize  that  their  powers  were 
only  advisory  and  that  they  would  be  expected 
to  advise  the  king  to  do  what  he  wanted  to.  All 
that  they  were  yet  to  learn.  For  the  moment 
they  felt  that  this  meeting  was  a  concession  from 
a  king  who  had  curbed  the  power  of  the  nobles, 
who  was  trying  to  prevent  the  clergy  from  even 
entering  the  hall  where  was  sitting  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris,  increasingly  made  up  of  lawyers, 
and  who  made  it  clear  that  he  tolerated  the  bur- 
gesses only  because  they  were  occasionally  useful. 

To  the  burgesses  this  was  in  truth  a  proud 
moment,  for  it  was  their  first  admission  to  any 
body  of  the  kind  on  even  terms  with  the  other 
two  estates.  They  were  to  find  out  that,  because 
the  voting  always  was  done  by  classes,  they  were 
to  be  outnumbered  two  to  one  on  almost  every 
question  with  a  unanimity  that  betrayed  the  fear 
that  their  presence  excited  in  the  lords  and 
clergy. 

It  was  not  until  the  fifteenth  century  that 
deputies  from  the  peasantry  sat  with  the  Third 
Estate.  In  the  five  centuries  between  the  calling 
of  the  first  States  General  and  the  Revolution 
the  Assembly  was  summoned  only  thirteen  times. 


114       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

When  Louis  XVI  ordered  an  election  in  the 
futile  hope  that  something  might  be  suggested 
that  would  help  France  in  her  trouble  it  had  been 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  years  since  a  sitting 
had  been  held. 

The  first  States  General  found  itself  in  some- 
thing of  a  predicament.  It  was  clear  that  it  was 
expected  to  endorse  Philip's  attitude  toward  the 
pope,  yet  such  a  course  would  place  the  clergy 
at  variance  with  the  head  of  the  church.  Of 
course  they  yielded.  Boniface  was  a  long  way 
off;  Philip  was  near  at  hand,  and  the  dungeons 
of  the  Grand  Chatelet  and  of  the  Louvre  were 
always  able  to  hold  a  few  more  prisoners. 
The  pope  was  notified  that  the  affairs  of  France 
were  the  concern  of  France  and  not  of  an  out- 
sider. The  pope  replied  with  excommunica- 
tion. Philip  retaliated  with  charges  for  which, 
he  said,  the  pontiff  should  be  tried.  Boniface, 
justly  enraged,  threatened  to  depose  Philip 
and  make  the  German  emperor  king  of  France. 
Philip  once  more  laid  his  case  before  his  subjects, 
this  time  in  the  palace  garden.  Hot  and  heavy 
raged  the  quarrel  after  this.  It  resulted  in  the 
popes  becoming  for  seventy  years  no  more  than 
dependents  upon  the  will  of  the  French  crown, 
and  practically  its  prisoners  at  Avignon  on 
French  soil. 

Having  negotiated  the  election  of  a  pope  of 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  115 

French  birth,  Philip  used  him  as  a  tool  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  mercenary  and  cruel  plans 
against  the  Order  of  Knights  Templar.  This 
order,  at  once  religious  and  military,  had  been 
founded  to  protect  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Sepul- 
cher.  Its  duties  over  with  the  ending  of  the 
Crusades,  idleness  may,  perhaps,  have  done  its 
proverbial  work.  No  one  believes,  however,  that 
Phihp's  charges  of  corruption  in  both  religious 
practices  and  in  manner  of  living  were  other  than 
shamefully  exaggerated  excuses  for  seizing  rich 
possessions  which  he  had  coveted  ever  since  the 
time  when,  during  a  Paris  riot  caused  by  an 
unjust  tax,  he  had  taken  refuge  in  the  Temple  to 
the  north  of  the  city.  There  he  had  seen  the 
gathered  treasures,  and  the  fact  that  he  owed  his 
life  to  the  Templars  did  not  deter  him  from  devis- 
ing elaborate  plans  to  rob  them. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  October  13,  1307,  all 
the  Templars  in  France  were  seized  in  their  beds 
and  thrown  into  ecclesiastical  prisons.  There 
were  one  hundred  and  forty  arrests  in  Paris. 
The  knights  listened,  astounded,  to  what  pur- 
ported to  be  a  confession  by  the  Grand  Master, 
Jacques  de  Molay,  of  the  truth  of  the  abominable 
charges  brought  against  the  Order.  They  were 
promised  hberty  if  they  confirmed  the  confession. 
To  the  lasting  credit  of  the  Order  only  a  few 
bought  their  freedom  by  perjury.    The  rest  were 


116       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

"  put  to  the  question  "  with  a  wealth  of  hideous 
ingenuity  which  has  seldom  been  approached  in 
the  grisly  history  of  the  torture  chamber.  In 
Paris  alone  thirty-six  died  as  a  result  of  their 
rending  on  the  rack,  and  the  others  said  anything 
that  would  put  an  end  to  suffering  worse  than 
death. 

The  methods  employed  by  Philip  became 
known  to  the  pope,  and  although  he  had  sworn 
to  do  the  king's  behest  in  regard  to  some  unknown 
deed,  and  this  proved  to  be  the  deed,  yet  he  had 
the  courage  to  send  a  commission  to  Paris  to 
search  into  the  truth  of  the  rumors  that  had 
reached  him.  It  sat  in  the  Abbey  of  Sainte 
Genevieve.  Under  shelter  of  the  commission's 
protection  scores  of  witnesses  from  all  over 
France  told  what  they  had  endured,  and  denied 
their  extorted  confessions.  Jacques  de  Molay 
himself  was  tortured  physically  and  tormented 
mentally,  but  he  persisted  in  a  denial.  His 
courage  gave  strength  to  over  two  hundred  other 
knights  who  came  before  the  commission  to  show 
the  wounds  by  which  they  had  been  forced  into 
saying  what  was  not  true. 

But  Philip  was  not  to  be  balked  of  his  prey. 
The  archbishop  of  Sens,  who  was  also  metro- 
politan of  Paris  held  a  special  court  in  the  Hotel 
de  Sens.  This  palace  was  replaced  almost  two 
centuries  later  by  the  Hotel  de  Sens  now  to  be 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  117 

seen  on  the  rue  du  Figuier-Saint-Paul,  a  house 
well  worth  a  visit  from  lovers  of  line  and  propor- 
tion as  well  as  from  antiquarians.  To  his  court 
the  archbishop  summoned  half  a  hundred  of  the 
knights  who  had  denied  their  confessions,  and  the 
tribunal  promptly  convicted  them  of  heresy  and 
condemned  them  to  be  burned.  The  pope's  com- 
missioners had  no  control  over  a  local  court  and 
could  not  save  the  poor  wretches.  On  a  day  in 
May,  1308,  they  were  taken  out  of  the  city  on  the 
northeast  and  there  suffered  their  cruel  punish- 
ment, every  one  of  them  protesting  to  the  assem- 
bled crowd  the  innocence  of  the  Order.  Six 
others  were  burned  on  the  Greve. 

Five  years  later  the  pope  ordered  the  dispersal 
of  the  Order  and  Philip  was  at  last  able  to  take 
possession  of  their  treasure — to  repay  himself  for 
the  heavy  expenses  of  the  trial ! 

While  the  Grand  Master  lived,  however,  even 
though  he  was  in  prison  for  life,  the  king  did  not 
feel  secure  in  his  iU-gotten  gain.  A  year  after 
the  general  dispersal  the  Parisians  thronged  one 
day  into  the  Parvis  de  Notre  Dame — the  raised 
open  space  before  the  cathedral — where  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  pope,  the  archbishop  of  Sens  and 
other  church  dignitaries  sat  enthroned.  There 
Jacques  de  Molay  and  three  other  officers  of  the 
late  Order  were  confronted  with  their  false  or  ex- 
torted confessions.    If  it  was  done  to  harry  them 


118       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

into  some  betrayal  of  feeling  which  could  be 
taken  advantage  of  for  their  destruction  it  was 
successful.  De  Molay  protested  against  this  un- 
truth being  again  attributed  to  him.  The  crowd, 
eager  for  excitement,  pressed  closer  to  hear  the 
ringing  words  of  the  old  soldiers.  Then,  in  the 
dusk  of  evening,  noble  and  burgess  and  cleric 
pushed  to  the  western  end  of  the  Cite  where  they 
could  look  across  to  some  small  islands,  to-day 
walled  and  made  a  part  of  the  land  on  which  the 
Pont  Neuf  rests  between  the  two  arms  of  the 
Seine.  On  one  of  these  islets  the  fagots  were 
piled.  A  witness  says;  "  The  Grand  Master,  see- 
ing the  fire,  stripped  himself  briskly;  I  tell  just 
as  I  saw;  he  bared  himself  to  his  shirt,  light- 
heartedly  and  with  a  good  grace,  without  a  whit 
of  trembling,  though  he  was  dragged  and  shaken 
mightily.  They  took  hold  of  him  to  tie  him  to 
the  stake,  and  they  were  binding  his  hands  with  a 
cord,  but  he  said  to  them,  "  Sirs,  suffer  me  to  fold 
my  hands  a  while  and  make  my  prayer  to  God, 
for  verily  it  is  time.  I  am  presently  to  die,  but 
wrongfully,  God  wot.  Wherefore  woe  will  come 
ere  long,  to  those  who  condemn  us  without  a 
cause.    God  will  avenge  our  death." 

While  the  flames  leaped  scarlet  against  the 
river  and  the  sky  the  Grand  Master  summoned 
pope  and  king  to  appear  with  him  before  the  bar 
of  the  Almighty.     They  who  heard  must  have 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  119 

shuddered,  and  shuddered  yet  again  when  in  fact 
Pope  Clement  died  within  forty  days  and  Philip 
the  Fair  within  the  year. 

In  Paris  the  huge  establishment  of  the  Temple 
with  its  many  buildings,  its  considerable  fields 
and  gardens  and  its  walls,  had  been  independent 
of  the  city,  and  over  its  inhabitants  the  Grand 
Master  had  power  of  life  and  death.  When 
Philip  took  possession  of  its  treasure  he  turned 
over  the  enclosure  to  the  Knights  of  Saint  John 
who  held  it  as  his  subjects.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  quiet  precincts  of  the  Temple  became  a 
haven  for  impoverished  nobles,  for  milicensed 
doctors  and  for  small  manufacturers  "  inde- 
pendent "  of  the  guilds,  for  all  these  found 
sanctuary  here.  Later  fhe  growth  of  the  city 
smothered  the  grounds  with  streets  and  houses 
and  did  away  with  most  of  the  buildings.  In  1792 
when  Louis  XVI  was  imprisoned  in  the  large 
tower  and  the  other  members  of  the  royal  family 
in  the  smaller  tower  the  few  buildings  that  were 
left  were  torn  down  so  that  they  might  not  serve 
as  hiding  places  for  any  rescue  party.  Napoleon 
had  the  donjon  demolished  in  1811,  and  every- 
thing that  was  left  of  the  once  superb  com- 
mandery  melted  into  the  Square  du  Temple 
under  the  beautifying  process  instituted  by 
Napoleon  III.  Until  a  very  few  years  ago  one 
of  the  sights  of  Paris  for  seers  in  search  of  the 


120       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

unusual  was  the  Temple  Market  edging  the 
square,  where  old  clothes,  old  curtains,  old  up- 
holstery— every  sort  of  second  hand  "  dry 
goods  " — offered  a  chance  for  the  securing  of 
occasional  wonderful  bargains  provided  the 
purchaser  was  either  fluent  in  his  own  behalf  or 
indifferent  to  what  was  said  to  him. 

Not  far  from  the  site  of  the  Temple  there 
stands  to-day  the  church  of  Saint  Leu,  a  part  of 
which  dates  from  the  fourteenth  century.  It  has 
small  architectural  value,  but  a  quaint  picture 
within  tells  a  tale  of  legendary  interest.  A  statue 
of  the  Virgin  used  to  stand  at  the  corner  of  the 
rue  aux  Ours,  not  far  from  the  church.  One 
day  an  impious  Swiss  soldier  struck  the  figure 
with  his  sword  and  blood  spurted  from  it.  The 
man  was  hung  upon  the  scene  of  his  crime,  and 
the  statue  was  preserved  in  the  Priory  of  Saint 
Martin-des-Champs.  For  more  than  three 
centuries  afterward  and  until,  indeed,  the  destruc- 
tive spirit  of  the  Revolution  did  away  with  cus- 
toms as  it  did  with  buildings,  it  was  usual  to  cele- 
brate this  happening  by  carrying  through  the 
streets  a  straw  man  in  Swiss  costume  which  was 
burned  on  the  corner  of  the  rue  aux  Ours. 

Among  the  utilitarian  institutions  of  the  four- 
teenth century  were  the  etuves,  public  vapor 
baths,  which  were  made  desirable  by  the  scanti- 
ness of  the  water  supply  at  home.    These  estab- 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  121 

lishments  were  as  popular  as  necessary.  When 
they  were  ready  for  action  a  crier  went  through 
the  streets  shouting: 

"  My  lords,  you  are  going  to  bathe 
And  steam  yourselves  without  delay; 
The  baths  are  hot  and  that's  the  truth." 

Wars  and  persecutions  show  large  in  any 
period  but  every  day  living  and  the  minor  hap- 
penings of  social  and  civic  growth  weave  the 
fabric  on  which  occasional  events  stand  out  like 
figures  on  a  patterned  cloth.  The  shuttle  of  time 
flashed  back  and  forth  through  Philip's  reign 
carrying  the  brilliant  woof  of  exploits  that  re- 
sulted in  increasing  concentration  of  power, 
of  wealth  and  of  prestige  in  the  monarch,  and 
threading  it  through  the  dull  warp  of  the  increas- 
ing poverty  of  the  lower  classes  and  the  lessening 
vigor  of  the  nobles. 

The  persecution  of  the  Templars  was  not  the 
only  persecution  of  the  time.  The  narrow- 
mindedness  that  was  increasingly  to  begrudge 
freedom  of  thought  was  beginning  its  death- 
dealing  work.  Here  and  there  throughout 
France  heretics  were  put  to  trial  every  now  and 
then.  The  king  defiled  the  day  of  Pentecost  in 
1310  by  causing  to  be  burned  on  the  Greve  a  Jew 
who  had  been  converted  but  who  had  denied  his 


122       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

new  faith,  a  priest  who  had  been  convicted  of 
heresy,  and  a  woman  who  had  distributed 
heretical  tracts. 

Perhaps  Philip  thought  by  such  deeds  to  win 
pardon  for  the  financial  exactions  with  which  he 
tormented  his  people.  He  was  constantly  devis- 
ing new  taxes.  One  of  the  chief  duties  of  the 
uniformed  militia  which  he  founded— dependent 
upon  and  consequently  faithful  to  the  crown — 
was  the  collection  of  his  unjust  levies.  As  he  lay 
dying  at  Fontainebleau  he  said  to  his  children 
gathered  at  his  bedside,  "  I  have  put  on  so  many 
talliages  and  laid  hands  on  so  much  riches  that  I 
shall  never  be  absolved." 

Paris  did  not  increase  much  in  extent  or  in 
population  during  Philip's  reign.  Its  beauty  lay 
in  the  harmony  that  was  building  every  new  con- 
struction like  its  fellows,  ogival  (Gothic),  with 
pointed  windows  and  doors  and  high-pitched 
roofs — a  style  superb  in  large  edifices  but  giving 
a  pinched  appearance  to  domestic  architecture. 

The  Louvre  served  its  grim  purpose  untouched 
through  this  period.  Its  commander  was  raised 
to  the  rank  of  captain  and  was  honored  by  being- 
forced  to  stand  in  no  one's  presence  but  the  king's 
and  to  receive  orders  only  from  his  royal  master. 

The  little  church  of  Saint  Julien  still  served 
as  the  chapel  of  the  University,  and  Philip  de- 
creed that  the  Provost  of  Paris,  the  king's  rep- 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  123 

resentative  in  the  city,  should  go  there  every  two 
years  and  in  the  presence  of  faculty  and  students 
should  solemnly  swear  that  he  would  protect  the 
rights  of  both  professors  and  students  and  that 
he  would  respect  them  himself.  This  meant  the 
comfirmation  of  Philip  Augustus's  regulations 
which  made  the  dwellers  in  the  University  section 
answerable  only  to  the  rector  of  the  University. 
The  schools  of  the  left  bank  were  increased  by  the 
addition  of  the  College  of  Navarre,  founded  by 
the  queen,  Jeanne  of  Navarre,  in  gratitude  for 
Philip's  victory  at  Mons-en-Puelle. 

A  curious  story  is  told  of  the  origin  of  the 
monastery  of  the  Cannes  Billettes  in  the  city's 
northern  section  that  had  been  redeemed  from 
the  marsh  and  hence  was  called  the  Marais,  a 
name  which  it  still  retains.  It  appears  that  in 
the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair  a  Jew  of  the  Marais 
lent  a  sum  of  money  to  a  woman,  and  then  offered 
to  quit  her  of  her  debt  if  she  would  bring  him 
a  consecrated  wafer.  When  he  had  possession  of 
it  he  pierced  it,  and  then  plunged  it  in  boiling 
water.  At  each  attack  upon  it  blood  spurted 
forth,  and  at  last  the  nerve-shaken  Jew  screamed 
for  help.  Forced  to  confess  his  deed  he  was  put 
to  the  torture  and  his  house  was  torn  down. 
Upon  its  site  the  king  permitted  the  erection  of 
a  religious  establishment. 

It  was  Philip  who  built  the  first  quay  to  re- 


124       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

strain  the  Seine  from  damaging  its  banks.  The 
king  bought  the  Hotel  de  Nesle  of  which  the 
Tour  de  Nesle,  scowling  across  at  the  Louvre, 
was  a  part.  Its  grounds  had  stretched  down  to 
the  water  where  they  fringed  the  stream  with 
willows  under  which  the  townspeople  used  to 
enjoy  the  shade  on  hot  summer  days.  The  king 
had  the  trees  cut  down  and  a  wall  constructed 
to  check  the  swirl  of  the  river  whose  two  arms 
rejoin  just  above  after  their  separation  by  the 
island. 

In  the  palace  the  administrative  work  of  the 
city  and  of  France  was  conducted,  and  so  ex- 
tensive was  it  now  with  all  Philip's  territorial 
additions  and  all  his  activities  calling  for  court 
adjustment  that  the  ancient  building  was  found 
to  be  much  too  small.  Enguerrand  de  Marigny 
superintended  its  enlargement,  and  so  generously 
did  he  build  that  the  old  palace  came  to  be  called 
"  Saint  Louis'  little  hall."  The  grandest  part  of 
the  new  structure  was  the  Great  Hall,  called  to- 
day in  its  rebuilt  form  the  Salle  des  Pas  Perdus. 
It  was  lofty  and  adorned  with  much  vivid  blue 
and  gold.  Statues  of  all  the  kings  of  France 
from  Pharamond  were  placed  on  the  upper  parts 
of  the  pillars,  visualizing  historical  characters  for 
the  youth  of  the  town  who  might  read  dates  on 
tablets  affixed.  For  long  years  the  curious  were 
delighted  by  the  sight  of  the  skeleton  of  what 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  125 

chroniclers  have  described  as  a  sort  of  crocodile, 
which  had  been  found  under  the  palace  when  the 
new  foundations  were  dug.  Across  one  end  of 
the  room  was  the  enormous  marble  slab  known 
as  the  table  of  Saint  Louis.  What  is  supposed 
to  be  a  fragment  of  it  is  now  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  palace.  Ai'ound  this  table  met  the  mem- 
bers of  three  different  law  courts.  When  din- 
ners or  suppers  of  ceremony  were  given  by  the 
monarch  only  royalties  were  allowed  to  sit  at 
this  post  of  honor.  An  idea  of  its  size  may  be 
gained  from  the  knowledge  that  the  Clerks  of 
the  Basoche  at  a  later  time  used  to  enact  plays 
upon  it  as  a  stage. 

This  organization,  the  Clerks  of  the  Basoche, 
came  into  being  in  Philip  the  Fair's  time.  The 
clerks  of  the  law  courts  used  to  hold  trials  to 
adjust  differences  among  themselves.  They 
played  the  parts  of  attorneys  and  court  officers, 
and  no  doubt  there  was  a  fine  display  of  imitative 
rhetoric.  The  word  basoche  probably  is  derived 
from  basilica,  and  was  adopted  because  it  was 
high-flown  and  unusual.  The  president  was 
called  the  King  of  the  Basoche  until  Henry  III, 
who  felt  a  bit  weak  about  his  own  royal  strength, 
forbade  the  use  of  the  title. 

In  the  court  in  front  of  the  palace  the  clerks 
used  to  plant  a  tree  or  pole  on  the  last  day  of 
every  May,  and  this  entrance  is  called  even  now 


126       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  Cour  du  Mai.  Here  stood  the  tumbrils  that 
carried  the  Revolutionary  victims  to  the  guil- 
lotine. At  the  foot  of  the  former  staircase  con- 
victs were  branded,  and  here  Beaumarchais 
gained  the  best  possible  free  advertisement  when 
his  books  were  burned  as  being  hostile  to  the 
well-being  of  society. 

Opening  out  of  the  Salle  des  Pas  Perdus  is  the 
"  First  Chamber,"  the  room  which  replaces  Saint 
Louis'  bedchamber.  Many  a  stern  tribunal  has 
been  held  there  since  the  time  of  the  gentle  king. 
It  was  here  that  Louis  XIV  commanded  his 
abashed  hearers  to  understand  that  ''  I  am  the 
State,"  and  here  sat  the  court  that  gave  Marie 
Antoinette  a  poor  semblance  of  trial. 

With  its  prisons  on  one  side  stirring  with 
memories  of  the  Revolution,  and  its  wonderful 
Gothic  jewel,  the  Sainte  Chapelle,  on  the  other, 
the  Palace  of  Justice,  with  all  its  myriads  of 
rooms  for  a  myriad  of  purposes,  is  one  of  the 
most  story-laden  and  varied  in  Europe. 

When  Enguerrand  de  Marigny  had  finished 
his  work  of  enlargement  Philip  commanded  a 
season  of  rejoicing  in  the  city.  For  a  whole  week 
the  townsfolk  poured  in  to  the  palace  to  see  and 
to  admire,  and  all  the  shops  were  closed  so  that 
there  might  be  no  other  distractions.  These  same 
people  had  to  pay  the  bills  for  the  new  construc- 
tion, and,  since  the  privilege  of  free  entrance  was 


PARIS  OF  PHILIP  THE  FAIR  127 

one  of  long  standing  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they 
felt  themselves  sufficiently  rewarded  for  their 
enforced  outlay  by  the  pleasure  given  to  their 
esthetic  sense. 

To  the  ceremony  of  the  knighting  of  the  king's 
three  sons,  which  was  a  part  of  the  celebration, 
they  were  not  admitted  in  numbers,  as  that  was 
in  the  more  private  Louvre. 

Philip  the  Fair's  immediate  successors,  Louis 
X,  le  Hutin,  the  Quarreler  (1314-1316),  Philip 
V,  the  Long  (1316-1322),  and  Charles  IV,  the 
Fair  (1322-1328),  were  rulers  of  small  account. 
They  all  did  some  fighting,  all  inherited  their 
father's  capacity  to  raise  financial  trouble  for 
their  subjects,  and  all  had  serious  domestic  diffi- 
culties. Their  wives  were  unfaithful  to  them,  and 
the  three  women  were  imprisoned  or  forced  to 
enter  the  Church.  Two  brothers,  Pierre  and 
Philip  Gualtier  d'Aulnay,  the  lovers  of  Louis' 
wife.  Marguerite  of  Burgundy  and  of  Charles's 
wife,  Blanche,  were  executed  on  the  Greve. 
Philip's  wife,  Jeanne  of  Burgundy,  was  the 
playful  lady  who  dropped  Buridan  into  the 
Seine  from  the  Tour  de  Nesle. 

After  Marguerite  had  been  strangled  in  her 
prison  Louis  le  Hutin  married  Clemence  of 
Hungary.  His  posthmnous  son,  John  I,  lived 
but  a  few  days,  and  Philip  the  Long  claimed  the 
confirmation  of  the  promise  which  the  Parlia- 


128       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

merit  of  Paris,  sitting  in  the  palace,  had  made  to 
support  him  rather  than  let  the  throne  go  to  a 
possible  daughter  of  Louis.  This  decision  es- 
tablished the  Salic  law  as  applying  to  the 
throne. 

Philip  the  Long  had  no  children  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  Charles  the  Fair.  Charles 
was  twice  married  after  his  repudiation  of 
Blanche,  but  he  left  only  a  daughter,  born  at  the 
Louvre  after  his  death,  and  the  crown  therefore 
went  to  his  first  cousin,  Philip  of  Valois. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PAKIS   OF   THE  EAULY   VALOIS 

PHILIP  OF  VALOIS  ruled  as  Philip  VI 
(1328-1350),  thus  founding  the  royal 
house  of  Valois.  Philip  was  not  allowed 
to  take  his  throne  peacefully,  however.  There 
were  other  claimants,  the  most  formidable  being 
Edward  III  of  England,  who  demanded  the  suc- 
cession through  his  mother,  Isabelle,  daughter 
of  Philip  the  Fair  and  sister  of  the  late  king. 
Edward's  aspirations  brought  to  pass  the  Hun- 
dred Years'  War  whose  weary  length  saw 
France  overrun  by  foreign  enemies  and  by 
French  brigands,  tortured  by  famine  and  plague, 
and  her  king  (John  the  Good)  a  prisoner  in 
England.  With  everything  topsy-turvy  it  be- 
comes hardly  a  matter  of  surprise  to  learn  that 
a  French  queen  mother  sold  her  son's  birthright, 
that  an  English  prince  was  crowned  king  of 
France  in  Notre  Dame,  that  the  citizens  of  Paris 
welcomed  the  English  to  help  defend  them 
against  their  own  countrymen,  and  that  a  maid 
led  men  to  battle. 

As  often  happens  with  men  of  extraordinary 
force  Philip  the  Fair  did  not  bequeath  any  legacy 

129 


130       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

of  energy  to  his  sons.  Philip  of  Valois,  son  of 
Philip  the  Fair's  brother,  had  no  notable  inher- 
itance of  character,  but  he  was  made  of  livelier 
stuff  than  his  cousins.  Although  three  reigns  had 
passed  since  his  uncle's  death  it  was  only  a  period 
of  fourteen  years,  and  the  royal  power  was  then 
at  the  greatest  point  of  concentration  it  had  yet 
reached.  A  man  of  but  ordinary  vigor  and  judg- 
ment, one  would  suppose,  would  have  been  able 
to  entrench  himself  strongly.  Yet  the  promise 
of  Phihp's  early  years  of  victory  over  the  Flem- 
ish was  unfulfilled  by  his  serious  defeats  at  the 
hands  of  the  English. 

He  jumped  into  the  arena  promptly  enough. 
At  his  coronation  at  Rheims  on  Trinity  Sunday, 
1328,  the  Count  of  Flanders,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  bear  the  great  sword,  did  not  answer  the  her- 
ald's summons,  although  he  was  there  in  plain 
view.  When  Philip  asked  for  an  explanation  his 
vassal  answered  that  he  had  been  called  by  his 
title,  and,  because  of  the  disobedience  of  his  peo- 
ple, his  title  was  now  but  empty  sound.  Philip 
was  fired  with  instant  sympathy.  "  Fair 
Cousin,"  he  said,  "  we  will  swear  to  you  by  the 
holy  oil  which  hath  this  day  trickled  over  our 
brow  that  we  will  not  enter  Paris  again  before 
seeing  you  reinstated  in  peaceable  possession  of 
the  countship  of  Flanders." 

He  found  that  he  had  entered  upon  no  easy 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS  131 

task,  for  the  Flemish  burghers  were  both  brave 
and  obstinate.  However,  he  won  a  brilliant  vic- 
tory at  Cassel,  where,  according  to  Froissart,  of 
sixteen  thousand  Flemish  "  all  were  left  there 
dead  and  slain  in  three  heaps  one  upon  another." 
So  annoyed  was  Philip  by  the  trouble  he  had 
been  put  to  to  save  his  word  unbroken  that  he 
gave  the  Count  of  Flanders  some  rather  threat- 
ening advice  when  he  left  to  make  his  deferred 
entrance  into  Paris. 

"  Count,"  he  said,  "  I  have  worked  for  you  at 
my  own  and  my  barons'  expense ;  I  give  you  back 
your  land,  recovered  and  in  peace;  so  take  care 
that  justice  be  kept  up  in  it,  and  that  I  have  not, 
through  your  fault,  to  return ;  for,  if  I  do,  it  will 
be  to  my  own  profit,  and  to  your  hurt." 

The  count,  however,  could  not  keep  out  of  em- 
broilment with  his  people.  Because  England 
supplied  the  wool  which  the  Flemish  looms  wove 
it  was  important  to  the  manufacturers  of  Flan- 
ders that  peace  should  be  preserved  between  the 
two  countries.  Heedless  of  this  necessity,  the 
Count  of  Flanders,  in  1336,  eight  years  after  the 
battle  of  Cassel,  ordered  the  imprisonment  of  all 
the  English  in  Flanders.  King  Edward  retal- 
iated in  kind  and  clapped  into  jail  all  the  Flem- 
ish merchants  in  England.  The  people  of  both 
countries  were  well  aware  that  Philip  of  France 
was  the  instigator  of  all  this  turmoil. 


132       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

A  year  after  Philip's  accession,  Edward,  as 
lord  of  Aquitaine,  had  gone  to  France  and  paid 
his  feudal  duty  to  him.  The  two  monarchs  were 
supposed  to  be  friends.  Friendship  is  hard  to 
preserve,  however,  when  ambitions  clash  and 
when  interested  people  are  alert  to  foment  trou- 
ble. In  1337  war  was  declared,  and  its  dragging 
course  for  the  next  decade  was  prophetic  of  the 
whole  miserable  century. 

After  nine  years  of  desultory  fighting  the 
French  suffered  at  Crecy  the  worst  defeat  the 
country  ever  had  known.  For  the  first  time  in 
history  gunpowder  was  used  in  war  and  the  inno- 
vation made  apparent  at  once  the  futility  of  the 
nobles'  fortresses  against  the  new  ammunition. 

A  part  of  the  English  army  drew  dangerously 
close  to  Paris — so  near  that  the  watchmen  on  the 
towers  caught  the  gleam  of  their  camp-fires,  and 
refugees  brought  news  of  burning  and  slaughter 
no  farther  away  than  Saint  Denis.  The  city  was 
saved  from  attack  only  because  Edward  was  be- 
sieging Calais.  It  cost  England  a  year's  fight- 
ing to  capture  this  Channel  key  to  France,  but 
she  held  it  for  two  hundred  years,  a  threat  to 
French  power  and  a  grief  to  French  hearts. 

Destructive  as  was  the  new  ammunition  its 
work  could  not  approach  the  loss  occasioned 
by  the  "  Black  Death,"  the  plague  which  swept 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         133 

across  Europe  with  such  might  that  it  even  put 
an  end  to  war. 

In  1350  Philip  VI  died.  His  body  was  car- 
ried to  Notre  Dame  where  it  lay  in  state  before 
being  taken  to  Saint  Denis.  There  it  was  buried 
"  on  the  left  side  of  the  great  altar,  his  bowels 
were  interred  at  the  Jacobins  at  Paris,  and  his 
heart  at  the  convent  of  the  Carthusians  at 
Bourgfontaines  in  Valois." 

A  month  later  Philip's  son,  John  (1350-1364) 
was  crowned  at  Rheims.  By  way  of  signalizing 
his  accession  he  conferred  knighthood  on  many 
young  men,  and  for  a  week  Paris  was  gay  with 
continual  feasting.  Perhaps  it  was  because  so 
many  people  thronged  the  palace  at  this  time, 
perhaps  it  was  because  of  the  encroachments  of 
the  courts,  that  John  did  not  always  occupy  the 
royal  apartments  on  the  Cite  but  lived  for  some 
time  at  the  Hotel  de  Nesle  which  Philip  the  Fair 
had  bought  for  the  crown. 

During  the  next  five  years  John  showed  him- 
self entirely  lacking  in  the  discretion  and  calm- 
ness which  the  uncertainties  of  the  time  de- 
manded. He  was  influenced  by  favorites  and 
he  was  constantly  quarreling  with  his  son-in-law, 
Charles  the  Bad,  king  of  Navarre,  who  had 
caused  the  murder  of  a  man  whom  John  esteemed 
and  who  was  incessantly  playing  fast  and  loose 
now  with  England,  now  with  France.     It  was 


134       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

to  consider  certain  charges  against  this  undesir- 
able connection  that  John  held  the  first  known 
lit  de  justice.  The  "  bed  of  justice  "  received  its 
name  from  the  king's  seat,  a  couch  raised  on  a 
dais,  both  covered  with  handsome  stuffs  sown 
with  the  fleur-de-lis.  The  king's  appearance  was 
in  harmony  with  his  desire  to  accent  his  regal 
state  for  he  wore  his  robes  of  ceremony  and  his 
crown. 

With  an  exhausted  treasury  threatening  the 
people  with  taxes,  with  the  plague  devastating  the 
country,  and  with  war  imminent,  it  is  small  won- 
der that  France  was  in  a  discouraged  state.  John 
tried  to  hearten  his  subjects  by  establishing  sub- 
sidies and  by  giving  festivals.  By  these  means  he 
won  his  nickname  of  "  the  Good,"  but  they  were 
the  cause  of  such  impoverishment  that  when  the 
English  war  broke  out  again  he  found  himself  in 
embarrassment  for  lack  of  money.  Twice  he 
summoned  the  States  General,  but  his  prepara- 
tions were  seriously  hindered.  His  judgment  as 
a  general  was  no  better  than  as  a  ruler.  Inflated 
by  some  trifling  successes  he  scorned  the  Black 
Prince's  proposals  of  peace  and  then  allowed  him- 
self to  be  beaten  ignominiously  by  a  force  much 
smaller  than  his  own  in  one  of  the  world's  great 
battles,  that  of  Poitiers. 

John's  personal  courage  was  magnificent.  Al- 
though several  divisions  of  his  army  were  with- 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         135 

drawn,  including  those  headed  by  his  three  older 
sons,  he  fought  valiantly  in  a  hand-to-hand  fight 
that  waxed  ever  brisker  as  his  opponents  saw  that 
they  were  dealing  with  some  man  of  prominence. 
His  fourteen-year-old  son,  Philip,  stayed  at  his 
father's  side  helping  him  by  constant  cries  of 
warning.  As  a  reward  for  his  fidelity  John  after- 
wards gave  him  the  province  of  Burgundy,  a  gift 
which  proved  to  be  a  sore  mistake  for  the  happi- 
ness of  France. 

After  the  battle  of  Poitiers  a  burgher  of  Paris 
vowed  a  candle  as  long  as  the  city  to  Notre  Dame 
de  Paris.  It  was  to  burn  always.  When  the  city 
grew  so  large  as  to  make  such  a  mass  of  wax  im- 
practicable the  offering  was  changed  (1605)  to  a 
silver  lamp,  and  it  may  be  seen  now  before  the 
graceful  figure  which  stands  at  the  south  side  of 
the  entrance  to  the  choir  of  the  cathedral. 

John  was  gently  treated  in  England  and  his 
presence  was  something  of  a  social  event.  When 
he  was  held  at  a  ransom  and  was  returned  to 
France  while  two  of  his  sons,  the  dukes  of  Anjou 
and  of  Berri,  were  sent  across  the  Channel  to 
serve  as  hostages  for  the  payment  of  the  ransom, 
the  king's  departure  was  a  matter  of  regret.  His 
welcome  in  France  was  equally  warm. 

"  Wherever  he  passed  the  reception  he  experienced 
was  most  honorable  and  magnificent,"  says  Froissart, 
"  At  Amiens,  he  stayed  until  Christmas  was  over,  and 


136       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

then  set  out  for  Paris,  where  he  was  solemnly  and  rev- 
erently met  by  the  clergy  and  others,  and  conducted  by 
them  to  his  palace ;  a  most  sumptuous  banquet  was  pre- 
pared, and  great  rejoicings  were  made;  but,  whatever  I 
may  say  upon  the  subject,  I  never  can  tell  how  warmly 
the  King  of  France  was  received  on  return  to  his  king- 
dom, by  all  sorts  of  people.  They  made  him  rich  gifts 
and  presents,  and  the  prelates  and  barons  of  the  realm 
feasted  and  entertained  him  as  became  his  condition." 

The  hostage  sons  proved  themselves  not  more 
reliable  as  hostages  than  they  had  been  as  fight- 
ers. One  of  them,  at  least,  yielded  to  the  call 
of  Paris,  broke  his  parole  and  fled  home.  John's 
paternal  pride  was  profoundly  outraged.  "  If 
honor  is  banished  from  every  other  spot,"  he  said, 
"  it  ought  to  remain  sacred  in  the  breast  of 
kings."  He  returned  at  once  to  London  and 
gave  himself  up  to  king  Edward. 

Again  he  found  himself  popular  at  the  English 
court,  and  he  passed  a  gay  winter,  entertaining 
Edward  at  Savoy  House  and  being  entertained 
in  turn  at  the  palace  of  Westminster.  Before 
many  months,  however,  he  was  stricken  with  a 
mortal  illness  and  died  without  seeing  France 
again. 

While  king  John  was  held  prisoner  by  the 
English  (1356-1360),  his  son  the  dauphin,  after- 
wards Charles  V,  ruled  or  tried  to  rule  in  France. 
During  his  regency  there  appears  one  of  the  fore- 
most characters  known  to  the  history  of  Paris, 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         137 

:]&tienne  Marcel.  This  man  belonged  to  an  old 
family  of  drapers,  and  had  achieved  the  position 
of  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants,  the  chief  ad- 
ministrative office  in  the  city's  gift. 

The  burghers  of  Paris  were  restless.  The  es- 
tablishment of  the  States  General  had  given  them 
recognition  of  a  kind  and  a  consequent  feeling 
of  importance.  Repeated  tax  levies  had  kept 
them  in  a  constant  state  of  irritation.  John  had 
crowded  them  out  of  the  army,  war,  according  to 
his  theory,  being  a  matter  for  nobles  to  handle. 
The  ignominious  defeat  at  Poitiers  made  them 
dissent  cordially  from  this  opinion. 

These  were  but  a  few  of  the  causes  stirring 
in  the  minds  of  the  burghers.  Now,  with  their 
jovial  and  improvident  king  a  prisoner  in  Eng- 
land, France  entrusted  to  an  untried  youth  of 
nineteen,  and  England's  plans  unknown  but  al- 
ways threatening,  the  bourgeois  felt  themselves 
to  be  facing  both  opportunity  and  responsibility. 

To  test  the  prince  seemed  to  be  the  first  sum- 
mons. Returning  from  Poitiers  Charles  took  the 
title  of  Lieutenant-General,  installed  himself  in 
the  Louvre,  summoned  the  States  General,  and 
entered  into  negotiations  with  Marcel.  The  pro- 
vost either  was  really  distrustful  of  the  dauphin 
or  he  saw  some  advantage  for  his  own  ambition 
in  setting  the  people  against  their  lord.  When  he 
went  to  a  conference  with  Charles  he  was  sup- 


138       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ported  by  a  body  of  men  heavily  armed,  and  a 
little  later  he  expressed  himself  as  so  fearful  of 
the  prince's  integrity  that  he  refused  to  go  nearer 
to  the  Louvre  than  the  church  of  Saint  Germain 
I'Auxerrois,  to  the  east  of  the  fortress. 

Egged  on  by  Marcel  the  States  General  did 
their  utmost  to  torment  the  young  regent.  Un- 
doubtedly they  had  grievances,  but  Charles  was 
not  at  all  responsible  for  the  state  of  the  country 
and  the  Assembly's  methods  of  improving  condi- 
tions savored  more  of  bullying  than  of  coopera- 
tion. 

The  body  met  less  than  three  weeks  after 
Charles's  arrival  in  Paris.  More  than  eight  hun- 
dred members  from  all  northern  France  gathered 
in  the  Great  Hall  of  the  palace.  Half  of  this 
throng  was  representative  of  the  bourgeoisie,  and 
their  superiority  in  numbers  over  the  nobility — 
depleted  by  its  losses  at  Poitiers — and  the 
clergy — naturally  a  lesser  body,  though  almost 
every  prelate  of  high  rank  was  present — gave  the 
middle  class  a  courage  they  never  before  had  as- 
sumed. 

Activity  against  the  regent  was  manifested 
promptly.  The  size  of  the  Assembly  being  un- 
wieldy a  body  of  eighty  was  chosen  from  the  full 
membership  to  confer  and  report  to  the  whole 
meeting.  Charles  sent  officers  to  represent  his 
interests  and  to  furnish  information.     On  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         139 

second  day  the  representatives  refused  to  take 
counsel  unless  the  officers  were  withdrawn.  Why 
they  wanted  to  be  unchecked  was  quite  evident 
when,  a  few  days  later,  the  States-General  re- 
quested the  dauphin  to  meet  with  them  in  the 
monastery  of  the  Cordeliers  on  the  left  bank  and 
hear  the  recommendations  which  had  been  ap- 
proved by  the  full  house.  They  demanded  that 
twenty-two  men  of  king  John's  closest  friends 
and  councillors  should  be  arrested,  lose  their 
offices  and  have  their  property  confiscated,  and, 
if  trial  proved  them  guilty  of  "  grafting  "  and 
of  giving  bad  advice  to  the  king,  they  were  to  be 
further  punished.  A  traveling  commission  was 
to  be  appointed  to  keep  a  check  on  all  the  officials 
of  France,  and  a  body  of  twenty-eight  men — 
four  prelates,  twelve  nobles  and  twelve  bur- 
ghers— was  to  have  "  power  to  do  and  to  order 
everything  in  the  kingdom  just  like  the  king  him- 
self." 

This  proposition  practically  relegated  the  re- 
gent to  private  life.  A  proposal  to  release  from 
prison  Charles's  brother-in-law,  Charles  the  Bad, 
was  not  only  an  attack  on  John's  management, 
but  a  threat  against  the  dauphin's  peace,  for  the 
king  of  Navarre  had  come  honestly  by  his  nick- 
name and  was  capable  of  fomenting  endless  trou- 
ble. 

In  return  for  conceding  their  demands  the 


140       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

States  promised  the  regent  a  force  of  thirty 
thousand  men,  their  support  to  be  provided  by- 
taxes  of  doubtful  collectibility. 

Charles  found  himself  in  a  position  of  extreme 
difficulty.  The  people  of  Paris  were  clamorously 
in  favor  of  the  Assembly's  proposals.  Every- 
body was  ready  to  hit  the  man  who  seemed  to 
have  no  friends.  Charles  sparred  for  time,  an- 
nouncing at  a  meeting  held  in  the  Louvre  that  all 
the  matters  under  discussion  must  hold  over  until 
he  had  attended  to  some  business  with  the  Ger- 
man emperor  and  the  pope  which  called  him  to 
Metz. 

Although  Paris  was  hostile  to  him  Charles  had 
friends  elsewhere.  He  received  information  that 
the  south  of  France  was  heartily  royalist,  and 
also  that  some  of  the  deputies  from  northern 
towns  to  the  Paris  Assembly  had  been  rebuked 
by  their  constituents  when  they  returned  home, 
for  their  attitude  to  the  regent. 

Unfortunately,  to  obtain  money  for  his  jour- 
ney, Charles  followed  his  father's  example  and 
debased  the  coinage.  When  this  became  known 
a  few  days  after  his  departure  Marcel  and  the 
mob  went  to  the  Louvre  and  frightened 
Charles's  younger  brother  into  rescinding  the 
order.  Six  weeks  later  Charles  returned  and  re- 
established his  original  order,  with  the  result  that 
all  Paris  rushed  to  arms  and  he  was  compelled 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         141 

to  grant  practically  every  demand  of  the  Assem- 
bly. 

When  the  Assembly  met  three  months  later 
its  early  enthusiasm  had  waned  or  else  the  rep- 
resentatives repented  of  their  harsh  demands  or 
saw  their  injustice.  The  clergy  and  the  nobility 
were  fewer  and  there  was  a  lack  of  harmony 
among  the  bourgeois j,  many  of  them  objecting  to 
the  concentration  of  power  which  Marcel  and  a 
few  of  his  friends  were  effecting. 

Charles  was  clever  enough  to  seize  this  time  of 
uneasiness  to  announce  that  he  "  intended  from 
now  on  to  govern  "  by  himself.  His  first  efforts 
were  not  very  successful,  for  Marcel  by  specious 
promises  wheedled  him  into  summoning  the  As- 
sembly again,  and  then  arranged  for  the  libera- 
tion of  Charles  the  Bad.  He  was  welcomed  by 
the  Paris  populace  and  had  the  audacity  to  make 
an  address  to  them  from  the  platform  on  the 
Abbey  of  Saint  Germain-des-Pres  from  which 
the  kings  were  used  to  watch  the  sports  of  the 
students  on  the  adjoining  Pre  au  Clercs. 

The  deputies  foresaw  a  clash  between  the 
brothers-in-law,  and  it  was  but  a  small  Assembly 
which  met,  some  of  the  members  having  returned 
home  after  reaching  Paris  and  recognizing  the 
trouble  that  was  bound  to  come  from  forcing  the 
dauphin  to  accept  Charles  the  Bad's  liberation 
and  to  receive  him  with  a  show  of  friendliness. 


142       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Outside  of  the  city  there  was  no  show  of 
friendhness  between  the  royahsts  and  the  friends 
of  Navarre.  A  lively  little  war  was  going  on  that 
sent  the  people  from  round  about  to  seek  pro- 
tection within  Marcel's  new  wall.  That  Marcel 
was  a  man  prompt  both  to  see  a  need  and  to 
meet  it  is  shown  in  his  action  when  the  news  of 
the  French  defeat  at  Poitiers  was  brought  to 
Paris.  The  very  next  day  he  gave  orders  for  the 
rebuilding  and  enlargement  of  the  wall  that  the 
English  might  encounter  that  obstacle  if  they 
advanced  upon  the  city.  The  existing  wall  had 
not  been  changed  since  Philip  Augustus's  time, 
five  centuries  before,  and  the  new  rampart 
showed  one  change  in  fashion — its  towers  were 
square  instead  of  round.  Its  size  indicated  a  dis- 
tinct increase  in  the  size  of  the  city  on  the  north 
side,  for  when  the  wall  was  completed  by  Charles 
V  the  ends  on  the  right  bank  were  not  opposite 
the  ends  on  the  south  bank.  The  south  wall  was 
made  stronger,  however,  by  a  deepening  of  the 
ditches. 

Charles  lived  much  at  the  Louvre.  Because 
he  gathered  a  body  of  soldiers  about  him  it  was 
rumored  that  he  was  going  to  use  them  against 
the  Parisians.  The  regent  was  not  lacking  in 
courage.  Accompanied  only  b}^  a  half  dozen  fol- 
lowers he  rode  into  one  of  the  city  squares  and 
told  the  astonished  crowd  of  his  affection  for 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         143 

Paris  and  its  people,  and  of  his  intention  of  de- 
fending it  against  its  enemies. 

The  people  were  so  touched  by  their  prince's 
pluck  and  candor  that  Marcel  found  it  prudent 
to  stop  laying  charges  against  the  dauphin  and 
to  transfer  them  to  his  councillors.  After  work- 
ing up  feeling  against  them  for  over  a  month  he 
led  a  mob  to  the  palace,  where  Charles  was  then 
staying.  Together  with  some  of  his  friends  he 
pressed  into  the  dauphin's  own  room  and  there 
they  killed  Charles's  councillors,  the  marshals  of 
Champagne  and  Normandy,  not  only  in  his 
sight  but  so  close  to  him  that  he  was  splashed 
with  their  blood.  Having  impressed  the  boy 
with  his  strength  he  patronizingly  offered  to  pro- 
tect him  and  put  on  his  head  his  own  citizen's  cap 
of  red  and  blue,  the  colors  of  Paris.  Then  he  had 
the  bodies  flung  on  to  Saint  Louis'  huge  marble 
table  in  the  Great  Hall,  later  to  be  exposed  pub- 
licly, and  made  his  way  back  to  the  Maison  aux 
Piliers  on  the  Greve  and  there  addressed  the  peo- 
ple, taking  great  credit  for  the  murderous  deed 
that  he  had  just  brought  to  pass.  The  crowd 
approved  him  with  vigorous  shouting. 

Marcel's  action  with  regard  to  the  Maison  aux 
Piliers  is  significant  of  his  entire  disregard  of 
the  wishes  or  the  property  of  the  crown  prince. 
The  house  took  its  name  from  the  fact  that  its 
second  story,  projecting  over  the  street,  was  sup- 


144       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ported  by  columns.  At  this  time  it  was  over 
two  hundred  years  old  for  it  had  been  built  in 
1141.  Philip  Augustus  bought  it  in  1212,  but 
evidently  he  resold  it,  for  there  is  a  record  that 
Philip  the  Fair  bought  it  for  a  present  for  his 
brother.  In  some  way  Philip  the  Long  got  pos- 
session of  it  and  gave  it  to  one  of  his  favorites. 
It  seems  to  have  returned  to  royal  hands  almost 
immediately,  for  Louis  the  Quarreler's  widow, 
Clemence,  died  there  and  willed  it  to  her  nephew, 
the  dauphin  of  Vienne.  His  heir  bequeathed  the 
dauphiny  and  other  property  to  Philip  of  Va- 
lois  in  trust  for  his  grandson,  the  Charles  of  this 
chapter,  who  was  the  first  heir  apparent  to  wear 
the  title  of  dauphin. 

Marcel  wanted  the  Maison  aux  Piliers  for  a 
city  hall.  The  dauphin  refused  to  give  it  up  and 
tried  various  ways — even  that  of  giving  title  to 
a  private  citizen — to  save  it  from  being  taken 
from  him.  About  six  months  before  the  murder 
of  the  marshals,  however,  Marcel  bought  it  with 
public  money,  and  called  it  La  Meson  de  la 
ViUe. 

On  the  northern  slope  of  the  JNIont  Sainte 
Genevieve,  on  the  site  of  a  building  of  Roman 
construction,  rose  in  Carolingian  days  the  first 
city  hall.  It  was  clumsily  made  of  stone  and  was 
called  the  Parloir  aux  Bourgeois.  This  was  suc- 
ceeded at  some  later  day  by  a  "  parloir  "  near  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS  145 

Grand  Chatelet.  Marcel's  purchase  decided  the 
situation  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  for  all  time.  It 
was  in  its  logical  place  near  the  Greve  where  the 
very  heart  of  the  city's  business  throbbed.  There, 
rebuilt  in  1540  by  Francis  I  and  in  1876  after 
its  destruction  by  the  communists,  it  has  housed 
the  city's  offices  and  has  seen  many  strange  and 
furious  scenes  in  days  of  disturbance,  and  re- 
ceived many  sovereigns  and  potentates  in  times 
of  peace. 

After  the  death  of  the  marshals  Marcel's  exac- 
tions upon  the  prince  were  grosser  than  ever. 
Charles  was  even  forced  to  give  Charles  the  Bad 
an  annuity  and  to  be  frequently  in  his  company. 
Just  about  a  month  after  the  assassination  the 
dauphin  managed  to  escape  from  Paris  and  go 
to  Champagne  where  he  was  given  cordial  sym- 
pathy by  the  friends  of  the  slain  marshal.  They 
urged  him  to  besiege  Paris  and  to  kill  the  pro- 
vost as  punishment  for  the  murder  he  had  in- 
stigated. When  the  Parisians  learned  that  the 
prince  to  whom  they  paid  so  little  consideration 
was  receiving  a  dangerous  support  in  other 
places  they  begged  the  University  of  Paris  to 
send  messengers  to  ask  him  to  spare  the  lives 
of  the  provost  and  his  immediate  following. 
Charles  returned  word  that  he  would  forgive  the 
citizens  provided  a  half  dozen  or  so  of  their  chief 
men  were  sent  him  as  hostages.     No  one  was 


146       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

willing  to  take  the  chance  of  surviving  the 
"  hostage  "  condition,  and  the  city  prepared  to 
withstand  a  siege. 

Immediately  after  Charles's  flight  Marcel  had 
removed  the  artillery  from  the  Louvre  to  the 
Hotel  de  Ville,  and  had  begun  to  swing  the  new 
wall  outside  of  the  fortress  in  order  to  cut  it  off 
from  the  coimtry.  The  work  of  wall-building 
went  on  briskly  on  the  right  bank,  and  the  moat 
was  deepened  around  the  fortifications  of  the 
left  bank. 

Being  still  under  the  spell  of  Charles  the  Bad's 
vivacity  and  enterprise  the  Parisians  invited  him 
to  be  their  captain.  Down  in  their  hearts, 
though,  they  did  not  trust  him,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  they  made  his  going  out  of  the  city 
with  his  men  and  engaging  in  a  shouted  con- 
versation with  the  regent's  men  an  excuse  for 
charging  him  with  treachery  and  driving  him  out 
of  the  city. 

Once  beyond  the  walls  he  promptly  joined  the 
dauphin  in  putting  down  the  peasant  insur- 
rection called  the  Jacquerie,  from  the  peasant's 
nickname,  Jacques  Bonhomme.  Whether  or 
not  Marcel  instigated  the  uprising  is  not  known 
with  certainty,  but  at  any  rate  it  served  the 
purpose  of  leading  the  prince's  army  away  from 
Paris.    The  insurrection  was  not  of  long  dura- 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         147 

tion,  for  it  was  crushed  with  a  heavy  hand 
and  no  quarter. 

Again  Marcel  dickered  with  Charles  the  Bad 
who  was  always  ready  to  dicker  with  aiiyhody 
on  the  chance  of  something  turning  out  for  his 
own  profit.  He  was  encamped  at  Saint  Denis. 
The  regent's  army  almost  surrounded  the  city 
and  was  in  communication  with  a  friendly  party 
inside  of  which  Jean  Maillard  was  the  most 
prominent. 

Confident  that  he  would  be  put  to  death  if  he 
were  captured  by  the  prince,  Marcel  arranged  to 
open  the  city  to  Navarre  on  the  night  of  July  31, 
1358.  Maillard  was  in  charge  of  the  Porte 
Saint  Denis  and  when  Marcel  demanded  the 
keys  he  refused  to  give  them  up.  Then  he 
leaped  on  his  horse,  took  the  banner  of  the  city 
from  the  Hotel  de  Ville  and  rode  through  street 
after  street  shouting  "  Montjoie  Saint  Denis," 
the  rallying  cry  of  the  monarch  from  early  days. 
There  was  lively  fighting  among  the  citizens 
throughout  the  evening. 

Marcel  had  sent  word  to  Charles  the  Bad  that 
entrance  might  be  made  by  the  east  gate,  the 
Porte  Saint  Antoine.  As  he  neared  it,  key  in 
hand,  about  eleven  o'clock  that  night,  he  was  met 
by  Maillard. 

"  ^tienne,  Etienne,"  cried  Maillard,  "  what 
are  you  doing  here  at  this  hour?  " 


148       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

"  What  business  is  it  of  yours,  Jehan!  I  am 
here  to  act  for  the  city  whose  government  has 
been  entrusted  to  me." 

"  That  is  not  so,"  cried  Jehan  with  an  oath. 
"  You  are  not  here  at  this  hour  for  any  good  end; 
and  I  call  your  attention,"  he  said  to  the  men 
with  him,  "  to  the  keys  of  the  gate  that  he  is 
carrying  for  the  purpose  of  betraying  the  city." 

"  Jehan,  you  lie!  " 

"Traitor,  'tis  you  who  lie!" 

A  sharp  fight  arose  between  the  two  bands 
and  Maillard  himself  killed  Marcel.  He  ex- 
plained his  course  the  next  day  to  the  people, 
"  and  the  greater  part  thanked  God  with  folded 
hands  for  the  grace  He  had  done  them." 

When  Charles  the  regent  rode  into  Paris  on 
the  second  day  of  August  he  passed  a  church- 
yard where  the  naked  bodies  of  Marcel  and  two 
of  his  companions  were  exposed  on  the  same 
spot  where  the  provost  had  exposed  the  bodies 
of  the  two  marshals. 

It  is  not  possible  to  teU  now — perhaps  it  was 
not  possible  to  tell  in  his  own  day — how  much  of 
Marcel's  activity  was  due  to  a  sincere  desire  to 
improve  the  economic  and  political  condition  of 
the  burghers  of  Paris,  and  how  much  was  the 
result  of  his  own  ambition.  Perhaps  he  was 
ahead  of  his  time;  certainly  he  was  mistaken  in 
his  methods.    Whatever  the  judgment  upon  him 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         149 

it  is  undeniable  that  he  was  a  man  of  extra- 
ordinary force  and  a  "  spellbinder "  whose 
personality  has  won  him  admiration  through  the 
centuries.  Beside  the  Hotel  de  Ville  his  statue 
stands  to-day,  a  stern  figure  looking  south  across 
the  river,  and  mounted  on  a  horse  which  has  been 
proclaimed  as  the  finest  bronze  steed  in  the 
world. 

Upon  his  return  to  Paris  Charles  showed  a 
forbearance  unusual  in  those  times  of  swift  re- 
prisals. There  were  confiscations  of  the  prop- 
erty of  some  of  Marcel's  friends  and  even  the 
beheading  of  two  of  them  on  the  Greve,  but  that 
was  before  the  regent's  entrance  into  the  city, 
and  he  tactfully  steadied  popular  feeling  and 
gave  no  rein  to  the  spirit  of  revenge  which  he 
might  have  been  expected  to  feel.  He  even 
entered  into  an  agreement  of  peace  with  that 
weathercock,  Charles  of  Navarre,  and  Paris  and 
its  neighborhood  drew  a  sigh  of  relief. 

The  dauphin  seized  the  opportunity  offered 
by  this  time  of  quiet  to  make  the  Louvre  more 
habitable.  The  ancient  tower  was  left  undis- 
turbed except  that  a  gallery  sprang  from  it  to 
the  northern  wall  which  Charles  built  to  complete 
the  rectangle  which  Philip  Augustus  had  begun. 

Marcel  had  met  his  reward  in  the  summer  of 
1358.  The  next  spring  Charles  received  from 
London  the  terms  of  a  treaty  which  his  father 


150       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

had  made  with  king  Edward  III.  A  large 
stretch  of  western  territory  was  to  be  yielded  to 
England  and  an  enormous  ransom  to  be  paid  for 
the  king's  release.  It  is  a  testimony  to  the 
increased  strength  of  the  subject  in  France  that 
Charles  submitted  this  document  to  a  gathering 
of  deputies  who  surrounded  the  regent  on  the 
great  outer  staircase  of  the  palace  and  filled 
the  courtyard  below.  They  rejected  with 
promptness  and  scorn  the  proposal  to  make 
their  enemies  a  gift  of  nearly  half  of  France  and 
to  ruin  themselves  by  the  raising  of  the  exorbi- 
tant sum  of  four  milhon  crowns  of  gold.  If  any 
money  was  to  be  raised  they  preferred  to  spend 
it  in  fighting  the  English,  and  they  offered  their 
services  as  soldiers. 

When  Edward  learned  of  France's  refusal 
to  accept  the  treaty  he  promptly  crossed  the 
Channel.  He  met  with  such  small  success,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  glad  to  make  a  compact  with 
Burgundy  by  which  he  promised — for  a  consid- 
eration— to  let  that  province  alone  for  two 
years. 

Edward  then  pressed  on  to  Paris  which  he  ap- 
proached on  the  south.  Charles,  learning  of  his 
coming,  burned  all  the  villages  adjoining  the  city 
on  that  side  so  that  the  English  army  would 
have  to  seek  far  for  food.  He  discouraged  any 
response    to    Edward's    attempts    to    draw   the 


PARIS  OF  THE  EARLY  VALOIS         151 

French  soldiers  outside  the  walls,  and  at  the 
end  of  a  week,  the  English,  bored  and  hungry, 
withdrew. 

Not  long  after,  Charles  was  able  to  nego- 
tiate the  Peace  of  Bretigny,  which  was  all  too 
hard  upon  France  in  its  demands  for  the  cession 
of  territory  and  of  a  large  ransom  for  John,  but 
which  the  people,  weary  of  war,  received  with 
joy.  The  bells  of  Notre  Dame  pealed  their  sat- 
isfaction, and  the  light-hearted  Parisians  danced 
and  feasted  in  the  squares,  and  entertained 
heartily  the  four  Englishmen  who  represented 
King  Edward.  Each  was  given  a  thorn  from 
the  Crown  of  Thorns,  the  choicest  possession  of 
Paris. 

Charles  had  obtained  the  money  to  pay  part 
of  his  father's  ransom  from  his  new  brother-in- 
law,  the  duke  of  Milan  who  had  just  married  his 
sister  Isabelle.  It  was  to  secure  the  payment 
of  the  remainder  that  John's  younger  sons,  the 
dukes  of  Anjou  and  of  Berri,  were  sent  to  Eng- 
land as  hostages. 

John  reentered  Paris  in  December,  1360, 
four  years  after  the  disastrous  battle  that  had 
cost  him  his  liberty  but  had  had  the  result  of 
giving  his  son  training  which  went  far  to  make 
him  one  of  the  greatest  kings  that  France  ever 
has  known.    Paris  was  glad  to  welcome  her  mon- 


152       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

arch  whose  charm  they  loved  and  whose  weak- 
ness they  forgot. 

The  remaining  four  years  of  John's  rule  was 
hardly  wiser  than  the  early  part.  He  jaunted 
about  the  country,  everywhere  instituting  festi- 
vals and  tournaments.  It  was  now  that  he  gave 
the  duchy  of  Burgundy  to  prince  Philip  as  a 
reward  for  his  pluck  at  Poitiers. 

Then  came  the  breaking  of  his  parole  by  the 
duke  of  Anjou  and  John's  return  to  England 
and  death.  The  stage  was  clear  for  the  reen- 
trance  of  a  man  who  was  to  treat  his  task  of 
rulership  as  one  worthy  of  serious  approach. 


CHAPTER  IX 


PARIS   OF   CHAELES  V 


KING  JOHN'S  body  was  sent  over  to 
France  from  London.  As  the  cortege 
escorting  the  cofRn  drew  near  to  Paris 
Charles  and  his  brothers  went  out  on  foot  to 
meet  it,  going  beyond  Saint  Denis  and  then  con- 
voying it  to  the  abbey  where  it  was  duly  buried. 
The  metropolitan  of  Paris,  the  archbishop  of 
Sens,  sang  mass,  and  after  the  service  the 
princes  with  their  following  of  lords  and  pre- 
lates returned  to  the  city. 

On  Trinity  Sunday,  not  long  after,  these 
same  lords  and  prelates  were  witnesses  of  the 
coronation  at  Rheims  of  Charles  and  his  wife. 
The  ceremonies  and  festivities  lasted  five  days, 
after  which  Charles  returned  to  Paris  to  take 
up  the  burden  of  government  of  a  disordered  and 
disheartened  coimtry. 

John's  lavishness  could  not  make  the  people 
blind  to  their  losses  by  the  plague  and  three 
years  after  Charles's  accession  a  new  attack  swept 
across  France  striking  chiefly  the  large  cities 
where  ignorance  of  sanitation  produced  condi- 
tions  in   which   truly   only   the   "  fittest " — the 

153 


154       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

toughest — could  survive.  A  writer  of  the  time 
says,  "  None  could  count  the  number  of  the  dead 
in  Paris,  young  or  old,  rich  or  poor ;  when  death 
entered  a  house  the  little  children  died  first,  then 
the  menials,  then  the  parents."  It  is  only  won- 
derful that  such  epidemics  did  not  make  their 
visitations  oftener,  when,  for  instance,  the  bodies 
of  Marcel  and  his  companions  in  treachery  were 
cast  into  the  river  at  the  Port  Saint  Paul,  which 
is  above  the  city,  and  the  city  continued  to  use 
the  river  water  for  drinking  purposes. 

The  laxities  of  the  last  reign  had  permitted 
roving  companies  of  what  were  little  other  than 
bandits  to  fight  and  burn  and  slay  all  over 
France,  while  in  the  northern  provinces  a  lively 
war  was  going  on  with  the  Navarrese,  helped  by 
the  Gascons  and  by  bands  of  English.  The  ter- 
ritorial loss  due  to  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  was  a 
sore  memory  to  king  and  people,  and  this  partic- 
ipation in  the  internal  strife  of  the  country  by 
the  chief  enemies  of  France  aggravated  hatred 
of  the  English.  Nor  was  England  the  only  land 
troublesome  to  Charles.  There  were  dissensions 
in  Italy  and  Spain  and  the  French  of  the  south 
were  drawn  into  affairs  that  touched  them  prac- 
tically although  they  were  over  the  border. 
Avignon,  which  had  been  the  enforced  home  of 
the  popes  since  Philip  the  Fair's  refusal  to 
acknowledge  the  temporal  power  of  the  pontiff 


PARIS  OF  CHARLES  V  155 

over  sixty  years  before,  was  deserted  by  Pope 
Urban  V,  who  went  to  Rome  in  spite  of  Charles's 
protestations.  The  emperor  of  Germany, 
Charles  IV,  was  the  only  monarch  of  Europe 
who  seemed  to  have  any  kindly  feeling  toward 
the  yoimg  king.  His  friendship  continued 
throughout  Charles's  reign,  and  in  1378,  two 
years  before  its  end  he  and  his  son  paid  a  visit 
to  Paris. 

Charles  showed  his  appreciation  of  the  im- 
perial good  will  by  the  cordiality  and  elaborate- 
ness of  his  reception.  The  king's  representa- 
tive, the  Provost  of  Paris,  and  the  people's  rep- 
resentative, the  Provost  of  the  Merchants,  went 
as  far  as  Saint  Denis  to  meet  the  German  train. 
The  king  himself,  dressed  in  scarlet  and  mounted 
on  a  handsome  white  horse,  awaited  them  at  the 
suburb  of  La  Chapelle.  The  combined  retinues 
made  a  dazzling  procession  across  the  city  to  the 
palace  on  the  island,  where,  in  the  evening,  a 
supper  was  served  to  over  eight  hundred  princes 
and  nobles.  The  effect  was  disastrous  on  the 
emperor  for  he  was  so  laid  up  with  gout  on 
the  following  day  that  he  had  to  be  borne  by 
servants  even  the  short  distance  between  his 
apartments  and  the  Sainte  Chapelle  where  he 
heard  mass  and  saw  the  Most  Holy  Relics.  On 
that  same  day  the  burghers  expressed  their  sat- 
isfaction with  the  visit  by  presenting  their  im- 


156       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

perial  guest,  by  the  hand  of  the  Provost  of  the 
Merchants,  with  a  superb  piece  of  silver  and 
two  huge  silver-gilt  flagons.  Every  day  of  the 
succeeding  week  was  filled  with  festivities.  In 
the  city  the  emperor  visited  the  Louvre  and  the 
Hotel  Saint  Paul — the  new  palace  at  the  east 
end — where  he  was  received  by  the  queen  who 
showed  him  the  royal  menagerie.  He  made 
various  excursions  in  the  suburbs — to  Saint 
Denis  to  see  the  tombs  of  the  French  monarchs, 
to  the  abbey  of  Saint  Maur,  east  of  the  city,  to 
the  chateau  of  Vincennes,  where  Charles  was 
born  and  where  he  was  destined  to  die  two  years 
later,  and  where  now  the  imperial  gout  pre- 
vented the  elder  guest  joining  the  younger  in 
a  stag  hunt,  and  finally,  on  the  day  of  departure, 
to  the  king's  favorite  chateau — de  Beaute.  Here 
the  monarchs  parted  after  exchanging  rings  and 
expressions  of  esteem. 

Since  Charles  had  so  many  troubles,  both  do- 
mestic and  foreign,  to  contend  with,  it  was  for- 
tunate that  he  was  intelligent  in  his  choice  of 
advisers  and  sagacious  and  prudent  in  his  legis- 
lation. Often  he  was  hard-pressed  financially, 
and  more  than  once  he  had  to  summon  the  States 
General  to  secure  approval  of  tax  levies  and  of 
political  moves.  His  fighting  was  not  glorious, 
though  Du  Guesclin,  whom  he  appointed  Con- 
stable, was  both  bold  and  determined,  but  he 


PARIS  OF  CHARLES  V  157 

knew  how  to  make  use  of  stratagem  and  even  of 
defeat  and  to  turn  the  quarrels  of  others  to  his 
own  account. 

Having  brought  about  a  state  of  peace  and 
understanding  in  the  immediate  provinces  and 
having  strengthened  himself  by  securing  the 
fortification  of  many  towns  and  the  increase  of 
his  armj^,  Charles  found  himself  in  a  position  to 
take  the  offensive  against  the  English.  A  be- 
ginning at  changing  the  state  of  affairs  brought 
about  by  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  was  made  when 
the  lords  of  Aquitaine,  which  the  royal  house  of 
England  held  subject  to  Charles's  suzerainty, 
went  to  Paris,  and,  to  the  delight  of  the  Pari- 
sians, entered  a  formal  complaint  against  the 
harsh  rule  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Edward  was 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  court  at  Paris. 
His  reply  to  the  messengers  was:  "We  will 
willingly  appear  at  Paris,  since  so  the  king  of 
France  commands  us,  but  it  will  be  with  basnet 
on  head  and  with  sixty  thousand  men  at  our 
back." 

The  States  General  supported  Charles,  and 
the  court  maintained  that  king  Edward  had  for- 
feited his  French  holdings  by  failing  to  appear 
in  Paris. 

The  English  retaliated  promptly,  and  for  the 
remaining  eleven  years  of  Charles's  reign  there 
was  constant  fighting  though  no  great  battle. 


158       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Charles  was  not  a  knight  of  noteworthy  per- 
sonal prowess  like  his  father.  He  never  went  to 
war  himself,  but  he  directed  every  move  and 
carried  diplomacy  into  every  plan  of  operations. 
His  army  tolled  the  English  along,  always  seem- 
ing to  promise  a  meeting  but  never  coming  to 
grips,  while  at  the  same  time  it  used  up  the  food 
supply  of  the  country  and  made  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  foreign  force  a  matter  of  extreme 
difficulty.  Small  affairs  were  not  prohibited, 
however,  and  the  French  took  an  English  town 
here  and  another  one  there  and  won  still  others 
by  stratagem. 

At  last  from  sheer  fatigue  a  truce  was  entered 
into  which  lasted  some  two  years.  Dui'ing  it  the 
Black  Prince  died.  "  The  King  of  France,  on 
account  of  his  lineage,"  says  Froissart,  "  had 
funeral  service  in  honor  of  him  performed  with 
great  magnificence  in  the  Sainte  Chapelle  of  the 
palace  in  Paris,  which  was  attended  by  many 
prelates  and  barons  of  the  realm." 

A  little  later  Edward  III  died  and  Charles, 
after  holding  a  memorial  service  for  him,  also, 
in  the  Sainte  Chapelle,  at  once  put  five  armies 
into  the  field  and  instituted  so  vigorous  an  offen- 
sive policy  that  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1380 
the  English  were  driven  out  of  all  but  five  coast 
cities. 

Two  months  before  the  king's  death  he  lost 


PARIS  OF  CHARLES  V  159 

his  strong-armed  Constable,  Du  Guesclin,  at 
the  siege  of  Chateauneuf-Randon.  Strangely 
enough  for  a  man  who  had  spent  his  life  in  arms 
the  great  fighter  did  not  die  sword  in  hand,  but 
of  illness  and  in  bed.  The  governor  of  the  town, 
who  had  promised  to  yield  to  the  Constable  and 
to  him  alone,  refused  to  give  up  his  keys  to  the 
second  in  command  and  going  out  from  the 
citadel  laid  them  on  the  bier  of  the  great  captain. 
Du  Guesclin's  body  was  carried  to  Paris  where 
it  lay  in  the  monastery  of  the  Cordeliers  on  the 
left  bank  before  it  was  taken  to  Saint  Denis 
where  his  tomb  was  arranged  at  the  foot  of  the 
tomb  which  Charles  had  had  prepared  for  him- 
self. The  ceremonies  were  as  elaborate  as  those 
for  a  member  of  the  royal  family,  in  such  esteem 
did  the  king  hold  the  departed  soldier. 

It  was  only  a  few  weeks  later  that  Charles 
himself  fell  ill  and  realized  that  his  end  was  not 
far  off.  He  had  known  much  sickness  in  his 
life — his  was  one  of  those  triumphs  of  mind  over 
unwilling  matter.  At  one  time  before  his  ac- 
cession his  unamiable  brother-in-law,  Charles 
the  Bad,  had,  it  is  asserted,  caused  him  to  be 
poisoned.  So  strong  was  the  poison  that  his  hair 
and  nails  fell  from  his  body.  His  good  friend 
the  Emperor  of  Germany  had  sent  him  a  skill- 
ful physician  who  had  relieved  his  system  by 
opening    a  small  sore  in  his  arm.     If  ever  it 


160       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

proved  impossible  to  keep  this  sore  open,  he  told 
his  royal  patient,  he  must  prepare  for  death, 
though  he  would  have  about  a  fortnight  in  which 
to  set  his  house  in  order.  Twenty-two  years 
later,  in  September,  1380,  the  issue  began  to 
dry,  and  at  the  end  of  the  month,  on  the  eve  of 
Michaelmas,  the  King  died  in  his  birthplace,  the 
chateau  of  Vincennes.  His  body  with  face  un- 
covered was  borne  through  the  mourning  crowds 
of  Paris  to  the  abbey  of  Saint  Denis  where  it  was 
buried  in  the  tomb  already  prepared. 

Wlien  Charles  as  a  young  man  had  made  a 
spirited  speech  to  the  Parisians  telling  them  that 
he  meant  to  live  and  die  in  Paris  he  made  a  state- 
ment that  he  lived  up  to.  Economical  even  to 
penuriousness  elsewhere,  he  built  lavishly  in 
Paris.  His  improvement  of  the  Louvre  has 
been  mentioned.  In  the  northeast  corner  of  the 
quadrangle  were  a  garden,  tennis  court  and  me- 
nagerie. A  library  of  nearly  a  thousand  vol- 
umes was  housed  in  tlu'ee  stories  of  one  of  the 
towers.  Charles  was  a  great  student,  read  the 
entire  Bible  through  every  year,  and  had  a  corps 
of  translators,  transcribers,  illuminators  and 
binders  always  at  work.  His  collection  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  present  National  Library  al- 
though the  Duke  of  Bedford  carried  off  a 
goodly  number  of  books  to  England  in  the  later 
part  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.     The  royal 


PARIS  OF  CHARLES  V 


161 


apartments  in  the  Louvre,  elaborately  carved 
and  decorated,  were  large  and  well  arranged. 
The  rooms  of  the  queen,  Jeanne  de  Bourbon, 
were  on  the  south  side  overlooking  the  river,  and 
the  king's  were  on  the  north.  Each  of  the  chil- 
dren had  a  separate  suite  and  that  of  the 
dauphin  rivaled  in  size  and  elegance  those  of  his 


The  Old  Louvre. 

father  and  mother.     Each  set  of  rooms  had  its 
own  chapel. 

The  palace  on  the  Cite  was  full  of  unpleasant 
memories  of  the  daj^s  of  the  regency — notably 
the  murder  of  the  marshals — and  Charles  no 
doubt  was  glad  when  the  overcrowding  caused 
by  the  business  of  the  courts  allowed  him  to 
break  away  from  the  tradition  of  royal  residence 
under  the  ancient  roof.     With  all  its  changes 


162        TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  Louvre  still  was  a  rather  grim  dwelling,  and 
Charles  chose  a  more  open  location  at  the  ex- 
treme east  of  the  city  for  his  new  Hotel  Saint 
Paul.  He  bought  existing  houses,  some  of 
which  he  demolished,  and  land  and  laid  out  a 
large  establishment  of  which  the  present  names 
of  streets  in  the  vicinity  suggest  varied  uses, 
though  none  of  the  original  buildings  are  left. 
The  streets  of  the  Garden,  of  the  Cherry  Or- 
chard, of  the  Fair  TreUis,  of  the  Lions  tell  their 
own  stories,  while  the  rue  Charles  V,  a  tiny  thor- 
oughfare, is  the  only  street  memorial  in  all  Paris 
which  bears  the  name  of  this  great  monarch. 

The  Hotel  des  Tournelles,  so  called  from  its 
many  towers,  was  built  by  Charles  just  north 
of  the  palace  of  Saint  Paul. 

Certainly  Paris  thrived  under  Charles.  The 
population  increased  to  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  many  people  coming  in  to  the  town 
during  the  troublous  times  with  Navarre  and 
the  English  to  secure  the  protection  of  its  wall. 
Charles  carried  on  Marcel's  plans  of  fortifica- 
tion. The  chief  point  was  the  Bastille — at  first 
merely  two  heavy  towers  protecting  one  of  the 
city  gates,  but,  by  the  time  of  Charles's  death, 
strengthened  by  the  addition  of  six  others  so 
that  it  became  a  formidable  fortress  and  dun- 
geon. Its  walls  were  fifteen  feet  thick  and  over 
sixty  feet  high.     A  deep  ditch  surrounded  it. 


PARIS  OF  CHARLES  V  163 

Its  destruction  by  the  mob  on  July  14,  1789, 
was  one  of  the  opening  events  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  so  profoundly  did  its  grim  walls  sym- 
bolize oppression  that  the  anniversary  of  its  de- 
struction is  the  French  national  holiday.  Where 
the  huge  building  stood  is  now  an  open  square 
adorned  by  a  shaft  called  the  "  July  Column  " 
raised  in  honor  of  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution  of 
July,  1830. 

Of  examples  of  domestic  architecture  of  this 
time  there  is  still  in  existence  part  of  the  Hotel 
de  Clisson.  It  is  now  the  entrance  of  the 
Archives,  and,  like  the  Hotel  de  Sens,  shows  the 
lingering  style  of  the  feudal  chateau. 

Charles  was  ably  seconded  in  his  civic  im- 
provements by  Hugh  Aubriot,  the  provost  of 
Paris,  who  established  a  mallet-armed  militia 
devoted  to  the  king's  interests.  The  provost  of 
Paris  represented  the  king,  and  Charles  added 
to  his  responsibilities  many  of  those  formerly 
attaching  to  the  provostship  of  the  Merchants 
before  the  king  had  experienced  their  extent 
in  the  hands  of  Marcel.  Aubriot  laid  the  corner 
stone  of  the  enlarged  Bastille.  He  never  was  on 
good  terms  with  the  clergy,  unlike  Charles, 
whose  studiousness  and  piety  endeared  him  to 
the  ecclesiastics.  On  the  very  day  of  Charles's 
funeral,  even  while  the  cortege  was  making  its 
way  to  Saint  Denis,  the  provost  quarreled  with 


164       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  rector  of  the  University,  was  ordered  before 
the  bishop  of  Paris  to  answer  for  his  misdeed, 
and  was  condemned  to  life  imprisonment.  How 
he  escaped  is  a  later  story. 

As  provost  of  Paris  Aubriot  lived  in  the  Grand 
Chatelet  on  the  right  bank.  This  fortress,  after- 
wards a  prison,  is  now  represented  only  by  a 
square  of  the  name.  In  the  course  of  his  im- 
provements Charles  strengthened  its  mate,  the 
Petit  Chatelet,  on  the  left  bank.  He  also  in- 
stalled the  first  large  clock  in  Paris,  that  on  the 
square  tower  of  the  Conciergerie. 

As  a  symbol  of  the  royal  power  the  king 
ordered  that  there  be  added  to  the  seal  of  the 
city  of  Paris,  which  bore  the  ship  of  the  ancient 
guild  of  Nautae,  a  field  sown  with  the  fleur-de- 
iis. 


Arms  of  City  of  Paris 
UNDER  Charles  V. 


CHAPTER  X 

PARIS   OF   THE    HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR 

WHEN  Charles  V  lay  on  his  death-bed 
he  summoned  his  brothers,  the  dukes 
of  Berri  and  Burgundy  and  his 
brother-in-law,  the  duke  of  Bourbon,  and  gave 
them  detailed  instructions  concerning  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  son,  the  dauphin  Charles,  then 
twelve  years  old.  He  explained  frankly  that  his 
brother,  the  duke  of  Anjou,  was  not  asked  to 
this  conference,  although  next  to  himself  in  age, 
because  of  his  grasping  character.  Undoubt- 
edly there  were  other  qualities  upon  which  he 
did  not  need  to  dwell,  for  the  duke  of  Anjou  was 
that  son  of  John  the  Good  who  had  broken  his 
word  of  honor,  thereby  compelling  his  father 
to  retvu'n  to  his  confinement  in  England. 

The  four  brothers  had  no  idea  that  Anjou  was 
present  other  than  in  spirit,  perhaps,  at  the 
council  around  the  death-bed  of  the  eldest.  Yet 
he  was  concealed  so  near  that  he  heard  every 
word  including  the  "  no  good  to  himself  "  which 
is  the  proverbial  reward  of  the  listener.  He 
straightway  went  forth  and  turned  to  his  own 
account  the  information  so  infamously  acquired. 

165 


166       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Rushing  from  Vincennes  to  Paris  he  seized  the 
king's  personal  valuables,  and,  as  soon  as 
Charles  was  buried,  he  declared  liimself  regent, 
because  of  his  being  the  new  king's  oldest  uncle. 

Charles  VI  (1380-1422)  was  only  twelve 
years  old,  and,  of  course,  was  entirely  in  the 
hands  of  his  guardians.  The  Parisians  were 
disposed  to  be  gentle  toward  the  child,  and  re- 
ceived him  with  rejoicing  when  he  entered  the 
city  after  his  coronation  at  Rheims.  Their  at- 
titude was  soon  to  change.  Charles  VI 's  reign 
was  one  of  such  dissension  and  turbulence 
among  his  subjects,  of  such  intrigue,  hypocrisy 
and  treachery  among  his  friends  and  relatives, 
and  of  such  advance  by  his  external  enemies 
who  naturally  took  advantage  of  these  internal 
troubles,  that  France  has  never  been  in  worse 
case  except  during  the  horrors  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Paris,  where  centered  the  initiative  of  the 
country,  was  torn  by  riot  and  insurrection,  the 
burghers  were  manipulated  by  the  lords,  and 
the  populace  was  at  last  declared  subject  to  its 
chief  enemy,  the  English. 

The  earliest  trouble  came  when  there  was  need 
of  money  for  the  meditated  war  with  Flanders, 
and  for  the  duke  of  Anjou's  secret  preparations 
for  an  expedition  to  Naples  where  it  was  his  life's 
ambition  to  rule.  As  usual,  the  coffers  of  the 
Jews  offered  an  irresistible  temptation.     The 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  167 

ghetto  was  in  the  heart  of  the  Cite.  Its  houses 
were  plundered  and  burned  and  many  Hebrews 
lost  their  lives  in  trying  to  protect  their  prop- 
erty. To  Anjou  the  citizens  were  more  gen- 
erous than  to  the  king.  A  certam  sum  which 
they  had  promised  to  the  royal  treasury  went 
into  the  avuncular  pocketbook. 

There  had  been  fair  words  at  first  about  the 
reduction  of  taxes,  but  when  the  words  came  to 
nothing  the  Parisians  rose  in  hot  rebellion.  The 
immediate  cause  was  the  announcement  of  a  new 
tax  on  all  merchandise  sold.  When  the  tax- 
gatherers  attempted  to  do  their  duty  the  people 
went  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  and  the  Arsenal  and 
armed  themselves  with  the  mallets  which  Hugh 
Aubriot  had  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  militia 
when  they  should  be  called  out  against  the  Eng- 
lish. For  several  days  the  people  were  masters  of 
the  city.  Aubriot  was  released  from  the  bishop's 
prison  and  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  rebellion, 
but  he  evidently  regarded  this  as  a  doubtful 
honor,  for  he  disappeared  in  the  course  of  the 
night,  seeming  to  think  that  an  escape  confirmed 
was  better  than  a  hazardous  leadership.  Pris- 
oners for  debt  were  released  by  the  insurrection- 
ists and  the  maillotins — mallet-bearers — com- 
mitted many  murders  for  which  they  were  to 
suffer  swift  punishment. 

Young  Charles  had  had  his  first  taste  of  war 


168       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

in  Flanders  and  had  gained  the  battle  of  Rose- 
becque.  Returning  to  Paris  the  citizens  came 
forth  to  meet  him  fully  armed  and  with  such 
martial  demeanor  that  it  looked  as  if  they  came 
to  greet  their  lord  in  battle  array.  Charles  sent 
an  officer  to  them  as  they  stood  massed  under 
Montmartre,  to  the  north  of  the  city,  with  a 
message  to  the  effect  that  he  had  no  desire  to 
see  them  in  any  such  guise,  and  ordering  them 
back  within  the  walls.  When  the  young  king 
had  restored  the  oriflamme  to  its  place  beside  the 
altar  at  Saint  Denis  he  entered  the  city  with 
every  evidence  of  displeasure  at  the  recent  revo- 
lutionary behavior  of  the  citizens.  The  bar- 
riers before  the  gates  and  the  gates  themselves 
were  destroyed  as  if  the  monarch  were  making 
an  entrance  into  the  town  of  an  enemy,  and  he 
rode  haughtily  through  the  streets,  the  only 
moimted  soldier  in  the  army,  acknowledging 
neither  by  look  or  word  the  acclamations  of  his 
subjects.  No  sooner  had  he  given  thanks  for 
his  victories  and  had  left  Notre  Dame  than  he 
issued  stern  orders  of  reprisal.  He  punished 
individuals  by  fine  or  imprisonment  or  death 
and  the  city  by  a  loss  of  privileges  which  it  had 
taken  long  to  win.  Among  them,  the  Provost 
of  Merchants  became  merely  a  minor  officer  of 
the  king,  the  corporations  lost  the  right  of  elect- 
ing   their    heads,    the    chains    which    had    been 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  169 

stretched  across  the  streets  at  night  and  which 
could  be  serviceable  as  barricades  were  removed, 
and  the  burghers  were  disarmed. 

Among  the  executions  was  that  of  Jean  Des- 
marets,  an  old  man  who  had  served  well  and 
faithfully  both  king  and  people.  His  had  been 
a  soothing  influence  on  many  occasions  when 
the  citizens  would  have  broken  out  in  rebellion, 
but  now  he  was  caught  in  a  position  where  his 
conviction  was  inevitable  in  the  midst  of  a  tur- 
moil where  discriminations  were  not  made.  On 
his  way  to  execution  some  one  shouted  to  him  to 
ask  King  Charles  for  mercy.  "  God  alone  will 
I  ask  for  mercy,"  he  said.  "  I  served  well  and 
faithfully  King  Charles's  great-grandfather,  and 
his  grandfather,  and  his  father,  and  they  had 
nothing  with  which  to  reproach  me.  If  the  king 
had  the  age  and  knowledge  of  a  man  he  would 
never  have  been  guilty  of  such  a  judgment 
against  me." 

When  the  Parisians  piled  up  before  the 
Louvre  enough  arms  to  furnish  forth  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  soldiers  Charles  knew  that  they 
were  thorouglily  penitent. 

The  king's  uncles  soon  wearied  of  guardian- 
ship which  each  must  share  with  his  brother,  and 
they  went  off  on  their  separate  interests  with  the 
exception  of  the  strongest  of  them  all,  the  duke 
of  Burgundy.     He  was  that  same  Philip  the 


170       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Bold  who  had  fought  beside  his  father  at 
Poitiers  and  who  had  received  the  duchy  of 
Burgundy  as  his  reward.  He  had  made  an  ad- 
vantageous marriage,  and  so  firmly  established 
was  he  and  so  conscious  of  his  power  that  at  the 
coronation  of  Charles  VI  he  had  sat  down  be- 
side the  king  in  the  place  which  his  brother  An- 
jou  should  have  occupied,  and  no  one  tried  to 
dispossess  him.  Now  he  practically  ruled  the 
kingdom  alone,  though  the  other  uncles  re- 
turned now  and  then.  Charles  was  but  a  lad 
still,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  he  should  be 
lively,  and  his  uncles  were  well  content  that  he 
should  be  diverted  from  any  attempt  to  learn 
anything  of  his  business  of  government.  Balls 
and  jousts  were  frequent.  There  was  a  revival 
of  the  fashions  of  the  days  of  chivalry,  and  old 
chronicles  and  tales  were  sought  out  to  teach  the 
ancient  customs.  The  ladies  wore  extravagant 
head-dresses  with  veils  and  horns  and  the  men 
decked  themselves  in  tight  nether  garments  and 
flowing  sleeves. 

Froissart  tells  in  detail  the  events  of  the 
"  First  Entry  "  of  Charles's  queen,  Isabeau  of 
Bavaria,  into  Paris.  He  is  not  right  in  saying 
that  she  never  had  been  in  the  city.  She  had  been 
married  five  years  at  the  time :  her  wedding  ban- 
quet had  been  given  in  the  palace  of  the  Cite,  and 
she  had  been  crowned  in  the  Sainte  Chapelle. 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  171 

This  "  Entry  "  was  merely  an  excuse  for  espe- 
cially gorgeous  festivities. 

"  It  was  on  Sunday,  the  20th  day  of  June,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1389,"  says  the  chronicler,  "  that  the  queen 
entered  Paris.  In  the  afternoon  of  that  day  the  noble 
ladies  of  France  who  were  to  accompany  the  queen  as- 
sembled at  Saint  Denis,  with  such  of  the  nobility  as  were 
appointed  to  lead  the  litters  of  the  queen  and  her  at- 
tendants. The  citizens  of  Paris,  to  the  number  of  1,200, 
were  mounted  on  horseback,  dressed  in  uniforms  of 
green  and  crimson,  and  lined  each  side  of  the  road. 
Queen  Joan  and  her  daughter  the  Duchess  of  Orleans 
entered  the  city  first,  about  an  hour  after  noon,  in  a 
covered  litter,  and  passing  through  the  great  street  of 
Saint  Denis,  went  to  the  palace,  where  the  king  was 
waiting  for  them. 

"  The  Queen  of  France,  attended  by  the  Duchess  of 
Berry  and  many  other  noble  ladies,  began  the  proces- 
sion in  an  open  litter  most  richly  ornamented.  A  crowd 
of  nobles  attended,  and  sergeants  and  others  of  the 
king's  officers  had  full  employment  in  making  way  for 
the  procession,  for  there  were  such  numbers  assembled 
that  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  world  had  come  thither.  At 
the  gate  of  Saint  Denis  was  the  representation  of  a 
starry  firmament,  and  within  it  were  children  dressed  as 
angels,  whose  singing  and  chanting  was  melodiously 
sweet.  There  was  also  an  image  of  the  Virgin  holding  in 
her  arms  a  child,  who  at  times  amused  himself  with  a 
windmill  made  of  a  large  walnut.  The  upper  part  of 
this  firmament  was  richly  adorned  with  the  arms  of 
France  and  Bavaria,  with  a  brilliant  sun  dispersing  his 
rays  through  the  heavens ;  and  this  sun  was  the  king's 
device  at  the  ensuing  tournaments.  The  queen,  after 
passing  them,  advanced  slowly  to  the  fountain  in  the 
street  of  Saint  Denis,  which  was  decorated  with  fine  blue 


172       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

cloth  besprinkled  over  with  golden  flowers-de-luce ;  and 
instead  of  water,  the  fountain  ran  in  great  streams  of 
Claire,  and  excellent  Piement.  Around  the  fountain 
were  young  girls  handsomely  dressed,  who  sang  most 
sweetly,  and  held  in  their  hands  cups  of  gold,  offering 
drink  to  all  who  chose  it.  Below  the  monastery  of  the 
Trinity  a  scaffold  had  been  erected  in  the  streets,  and  on 
it  a  castle,  with  a  representation  of  the  battle  with  King 
Saladin  performed  by  living  actors,  the  Christians 
on  one  side  and  the  Saracens  on  the  other.  The  proces- 
sion then  passed  on  to  the  second  gate  of  Saint  Denis, 
which  was  adorned  as  the  first ;  and  as  the  queen  was 
going  through  the  gate  two  angels  descended  and  gently 
placed  on  her  head  a  rich  golden  crown,  ornamented 
with  precious  stones,  at  the  same  time  singing  sweetly 
the  following  verse: — 

"  Dame  enclose  entre  fleurs  de  Lys, 
Reine  etes  vous  de  Paris. 
De  France,  et  de  tout  le  pais, 
Nous  en  r'  allons  en  paradis. 

"  Opposite  the  chapel  of  Saint  James  a  scaffold  had 
been  erected,  richly  decorated  with  tapestry,  and  sur- 
rounded with  curtains,  within  which  were  men  who 
played  finely  on  organs.  The  whole  street  of  Saint 
Denis  was  covered  with  a  canopy  or  rich  camlet  and  silk 
cloths.  The  queen  and  her  ladies,  conducted  by  the 
great  lords,  arrived  at  length  at  the  gate  of  the 
ChUtelet,  where  they  stopped  to  see  other  splendid  pag- 
eants that  had  been  prepared.  The  queen  and  her  at- 
tendants thence  passed  on  to  the  bridge  of  Notre 
Dame,  which  was  covered  with  a  starry  canopy  of 
green  and  crimson,  and  the  streets  were  all  hung 
with  tapestry  as  far  as  the  church.  It  was  now  late 
in  the  evening,  for  the  procession,  ever  since  it  had  set 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  173 

out  from  Saint  Denis,  had  advanced  but  at  a  foot's 
pace.  As  the  queen  was  passing  down  the  street  of 
Notre  Dame,  a  man  descended  by  means  of  a  rope  from 
the  highest  tower  of  Notre  Dame  church,  having  two 
lighted  torches  in  his  hands,  and  playing  many  tricks 
as  he  came  down.  The  Bishop  of  Paris  and  his  numer- 
ous clergy  met  the  queen  at  the  entrance  of  the  church, 
and  conducted  her  through  the  nave  and  choir  to  the 
great  altar,  where,  on  her  knees,  she  made  her  prayers, 
and  presented  as  her  offering  four  cloths  of  gold,  and 
the  handsome  crown  which  the  angels  had  put  on  her 
head  at  the  gate  of  Paris.  The  Lord  John  de  la  Riviere 
and  Sir  John  le  Mercier  instantly  brought  one  more 
rich  with  which  they  crowned  her.  When  this  was  done 
she  and  her  ladies  left  the  church,  and  as  it  was  late 
upwards  of  500  lighted  tapers  attended  the  procession. 
In  such  array  were  they  conducted  to  the  palace,  where 
the  king,  Queen  Joan,  and  the  Duchess  of  Orleans  were 
waiting  for  them. 

"  On  the  morrow,  which  was  Monday,  the  king  gave 
a  grand  dinner  to  a  numerous  company  of  ladies,  and 
at  the  hour  of  high  mass  the  Queen  of  France  was  con- 
ducted to  the  holy  chapel,  where  she  was  anointed  and 
sanctified  in  the  usual  manner.  Sir  William  de  Viare, 
Archbishop  of  Rouen,  said  mass.  Shortly  after  mass 
the  king,  queen,  and  all  the  ladies  entered  the  hall :  and 
you  must  know  that  the  great  marble  table  which  is  in 
the  hall  was  covered  with  oaken  planks  four  inches 
thick,  and  the  royal  dinner  placed  thereon.  Near  the 
table,  and  against  one  of  the  pillars,  was  the  king's 
buffet,  magnificently  decked  out  with  gold  and  silver 
plate;  and  in  the  hall  were  plenty  of  attendants,  ser- 
geants-at-arms,  ushers,  archers,  and  minstrels,  who 
played  away  to  the  best  of  their  ability.  The  kings, 
prelates,  and  ladies,  having  washed,  seated  themselves 
at  the  tables,  which  were  three  in  number :  at  the  first, 


174       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

sat  the  King  and  Queen  of  France,  and  some  few  of  the 
higher  nobility;  and  at  the  other  two,  there  were  up- 
wards of  500  ladies  and  damsels ;  but  the  crowd  was  so 
great  that  it  was  with  difficulty  they  could  be  served 
with  dinner,  which  indeed  was  plentiful  and  sumptuous. 
There  were  in  the  hall  many  curiously  arranged  de- 
vices :  a  castle  to  represent  the  city  of  Troy,  with  the 
palace  of  Ilion,  from  which  were  displayed  the  banners 
of  the  Trojans;  also  a  pavilion  on  which  were  placed 
the  banners  of  the  Grecian  kings,  and  which  was  moved 
as  it  were  by  invisible  beings  to  the  attack  of  Troy,  as- 
sisted by  a  large  ship  capable  of  containing  100  men-at- 
arms  ;  but  the  crowd  was  so  great  that  this  amusement 
could  not  last  long.  There  were  so  many  people  on  all 
sides  that  several  were  stifled  by  the  heat,  and  the 
queen  herself  almost  fainted.  The  queen  left  the  palace 
about  five  o'clock,  and,  followed  by  her  ladies,  in  litters 
or  on  horseback,  proceeded  to  the  residence  of  the  king 
at  the  hotel  de  Saint  Pol.  The  king  took  boat  at  the 
palace,  and  was  rowed  to  his  hotel,  where,  in  a  large 
hall,  he  entertained  the  ladies  at  a  banquet ;  the  queen, 
however,  remained  in  her  chamber  where  she  supped, 
and  did  not  again  appear  that  night.  On  Tuesday, 
many  superb  presents  were  made  by  the  Parisians  to 
the  King  and  Queen  of  France,  and  the  Duchess  of 
Touraine.  This  day  the  king  and  queen  dined  in  pri- 
vate, at  their  different  hotels,  for  at  three  o'clock  the 
tournament  was  to  take  place  in  the  square  of  Saint 
Catherine,  where  scaffolds  had  been  erected  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  queen  and  the  ladies.  The 
knights  who  took  part  in  this  tournament  were  thirty 
in  number,  including  the  king;  and  when  the  justs 
began  they  were  carried  on  with  great  vigor,  every 
one  performing  his  part  in  honor  of  the  ladies.  The 
Duke  of  Ireland,  who  was  then  a  resident  at  Paris,  and 
invited  by  the  king  to  the  tournament,  tilted  well;  also 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  175 

a  German  knight  from  beyond  the  Rhine,  by  name  Sir 
Gervais  di  Mirande,  gained  great  commendation.  The 
number  of  knights  made  it  difficult  to  give  a  full  stroke, 
and  the  dust  was  so  troublesome  that  it  increased  the 
difficulty.  The  Lord  de  Coucy  shone  with  brilliancy. 
The  tilts  were  continued  without  relaxation  until  night, 
when  the  ladies  were  conducted  to  their  hotels.  At  the 
hotel  de  Saint  Pol  was  the  most  magnificent  banquet  ever 
heard  of.  Feasting  and  dancing  lasted  till  sunrise,  and 
the  prize  of  the  tournament  was  given,  with  the  assent 
of  the  ladies  and  heralds,  to  the  king  as  being  the  best 
tilter  on  the  opponent  side;  while  the  prize  for  the 
holders  of  the  lists  was  given  to  the  Halze  de  Flandres, 
bastard  brother  to  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy.  On 
Wednesday  the  tilting  was  continued,  and  the  banquet 
this  evening  was  as  grand  as  the  preceding  one.  The 
prize  was  adjudged  by  the  ladies  and  heralds  to  a  squire 
from  Hainault,  as  the  most  deserving  of  the  opponents, 
and  to  a  squire  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  as 
the  best  tenant  of  the  field.  On  Thursday  also  the 
tournament  was  continued ;  and,  this  day,  knights  and 
squires  tilted  promiscuously,  and  many  gallant  justs 
were  done,  for  every  one  took  pains  to  excel.  When 
night  put  an  end  to  the  combat  there  was  a  grand 
entertainment  again  for  the  ladies  at  the  hotel  de  Saint 
Pol.  On  Friday  the  king  feasted  the  ladies  and  damsels 
at  dinner,  and  afterwards  very  many  returned  to  their 
homes,  the  king  and  queen  thanking  them  very  gra- 
ciously for  having  come  to  the  feast." 

Three  years  later  Charles  became  insane,  and 
it  seemed  as  if  no  man  was  his  friend  thereafter. 
Undoubtedly  a  life  of  youthful  dissipation  and 
a  naturally  violent  temper  were  the  bases  of 
his    malady.      The    provoking    causes    seem    to 


176       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

have  been  two.  Urged  by  the  bishop  of  Laon 
Charles  had  plucked  up  courage  enough  defi- 
nitely to  send  away  his  uncles  and  to  undertake 
to  rule  with  the  help  of  some  of  his  father's  ad- 
visers, whom  he  recalled.  One  of  these  men,  his 
Constable,  Oliver  de  Clisson,  was  foully  mur- 
dered at  a  little  distance  from  the  Hotel  Saint 
Paul,  a  few  minutes  after  he  had  left  a  banquet 
given  by  the  king.  When  Charles  was  told  of 
the  murder  he  rushed  into  the  street  in  his  night 
clothes  and  heard  the  name  of  the  assassin,  de 
Craon,  from  de  Clisson's  own  lips.  The  king 
burned  with  desire  for  vengeance.  He  set  out 
as  soon  as  he  could  in  pursuit  of  de  Craon  who 
was  supposed  to  have  fled  to  Brittany.  On  an 
extremely  hot  day  for  which  the  king  was  un- 
suitably dressed  in  a  thick  black  velvet  jacket 
and  heavy  scarlet  velvet  cap,  there  dashed  out  at 
him  from  the  roadside  an  old  man,  probably  half- 
witted, who  kept  crying  "  Go  no  farther;  thou 
art  betrayed."  Charles  was  much  startled  by 
this  gruesome  warning,  and  when  close  upon  it 
a  page's  lance  fell  clattering  against  some  piece 
of  steel  equipment  he  was  seized  with  frenzy, 
wounded  several  of  his  followers,  and  when  he 
was  at  last  overpowered  and  taken  from  his 
horse,  recognized  no  one. 

Never  again  was  he  wholly  sane.    There  were 
times  of  betterment,  but  never  any  real  mental 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  ITT 

health.  His  people  loved  him — his  nickname  is 
Bien-Aime — as  they  would  a  helpless  child,  but 
after  a  while  no  one  except  a  hired  woman  took 
any  care  of  him.  His  clothes  and  his  person  were 
neglected  and  he  had  no  medical  care.  Isabeau 
deserted  him  and  he  had  a  repugnance  for  her 
even  when  he  did  not  recognize  her.  At  other 
times  he  had  lucid  intervals  when  he  took  part 
in  festivities  prepared  to  divert  him.  It  was 
at  the  wedding  entertainment  of  a  lady  of  the 
court,  held  at  the  Hotel  Saint  Paul  where  he 
lived,  that  he  came  near  being  burned  to  death. 
He  and  five  of  his  courtiers  were  sewed  up  in 
tarred  skins  and  were  supposed  to  represent 
satyrs.  Some  one,  perhaps  by  accident,  per- 
haps with  the  desire  to  get  the  king  out  of  the 
way,  set  fire  to  these  dresses.  It  was  impossible 
to  pull  them  off.  One  of  the  young  men  threw 
himself  into  a  tub  of  water  and  was  saved.  The 
king  escaped  by  being  wrapped  in  the  volumi- 
nous skirt  of  his  very  young  aunt-in-law,  the 
duchess  of  Berri. 

With  the  head  of  the  kingdom  insane  for 
thirty  years  and  with  court  and  political  factions 
working  against  each  other  with  all  virulence  it 
is  not  strange  that  the  country  became  merely 
a  ground  for  the  display  of  individual  passion. 
The  duke  of  Burgundy  of  the  moment  was  John 
the  Fearless,  son  of  Philip  the  Bold.    Between 


178       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

John  and  Charles's  brother,  Louis,  duke  of  Or- 
leans, raged  a  hot  rivalry.  Isabeau,  whose  rela- 
tions with  Louis  were  a  public  scandal,  fed  the 
fire  of  disturbance.  At  last,  in  November,  1407, 
only  three  days  after  a  public  reconciliation, 
Louis  was  assassinated  at  the  hands  of  John's 
bravos  as  he  was  decoyed  by  a  false  message 
purporting  to  be  from  Charles,  from  the  Hotel 
Barbette  where  he  had  been  supping  with  the 
queen.  The  house  with  its  charming  little  tower 
is  still  standing  in  a  crowded  street  of  the  Marais. 
It  is  not  hard  to  picture  the  rush  of  the  assas- 
sins, the  screams  of  onlookers  aroused  from 
sleep,  the  hiss  of  arrows  shot  at  windows  where 
eyes  were  seeing  what  was  meant  to  be  hid,  and 
the  final  ordering  away  of  the  ruffians  by  a  tall 
man  in  command. 

The  next  day  what  member  of  the  royal  family 
more  grief-stricken  than  the  duke  of  Burgundy! 
Yet  he  admitted  the  deed  to  his  micle,  the  duke 
of  Berri.  In  spite  of  that  he  had  the  audacity 
the  day  after  to  try  to  join  the  council  of  princes 
who  met  in  the  Hotel  de  Nesle  on  the  left  bank 
to  discuss  the  matter.  To  their  credit  be  it  said 
that  they  did  not  admit  him.  John  rode  away 
into  Flanders,  but  so  great  was  his  confidence 
in  the  affection  for  him  of  the  people  of  Paris 
that  he  ventured  to  return,  to  have  his  case  de- 
fended by  a  monk — who  argued  for  five  hours 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  Vv  AU  179 

justifying  the  murder  of  Louis  as  the  murder 
of  a  tyrant — and  to  force  the  weak-minded  king 
to  forgive  him  the  vile  deed.  He  even  practi- 
cally ruled  the  city  for  a  time  in  the  absence  of 
the  queen.  Indeed  it  was  not  long  before  he  and 
Isabeau  came  to  a  secret  understanding.  A  lit- 
tle later  a  marriage  was  arranged  between  the 
murderer's  daughter  and  one  of  the  sons  of  his 
victim. 

Louis  of  Orleans'  son  Charles,  better  known 
as  a  poet  than  as  a  statesman  or  warrior,  mar- 
ried for  his  second  wife  the  daughter  of  the  count 
of  Armagnac  of  the  south  of  France.  The 
father-in-law  was  more  energetic  than  Charles, 
and  he  headed  the  struggle  with  the  Burgun- 
dians.  The  populace  of  Paris  sided  with  the 
Burgundians,  the  court  with  the  Armagnacs. 
For  five  years  France,  and  especially  Paris  was 
rent  with  broils  and  battles.  In  Charles  V's 
day  the  corporations  had  grown  strong  enough 
to  cause  some  concern  to  the  king  and  the  nobles. 
Now  the  powerfid  brotherhood  of  butchers  en- 
tered with  enthusiasm  into  the  dissensions  that 
were  making  Paris  almost  uninhabitable  for  the 
peacefully  inclined.  Accustomed  to  the  sight  of 
blood  and  its  shedding  they  entered  with  en- 
thusiasm into  the  reformation  of  the  government 
and  especially  of  such  members  of  the  Armagnac 
party  as  were  prominent.    Led  by  a  slaughterer 


180       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

named  Caboche  they  supported  the  Burgimdians 
in  every  attack,  always  in  the  name  of  changes 
which  the  wisest  men  of  the  burghers  saw  to  be 
beneficial,  but  which  no  one  had  the  ability  to 
bring  to  pass  except  by  violence.  The  cry  of 
"  Armagnac  "  was  enough  to  cause  an  attack  on 
any  passer  in  the  street  and  many  a  private  ven- 
geance was  accomplished  by  means  of  the  party 
shout. 

So  bad  did  conditions  become  that  the  steadiest 
of  the  bourgeois  at  last  summoned  the  Armagn- 
acs  to  check  the  excesses  of  the  Cabochiens. 
John  the  Fearless,  who  had  been  the  real  ruler, 
since  he  issued  orders  and  proclamations  pur- 
porting to  come  from  the  mad  king,  was  driven 
out  of  the  city. 

His  going  was  a  relief  to  Paris  but  to  the 
country  as  a  whole  it  brought  disaster,  for  the 
duke  was  not  slow  in  joining  forces  with  the  Eng- 
lish who  had  seen  their  opportunity  in  the  dis- 
turbed condition  of  their  enemy's  land.  Henry 
V  had  recently  succeeded  his  father  and  had  all 
a  newcomer's  and  a  young  man's  enthusiasm  for 
renewing  the  English  claim  upon  the  French 
crown.  He  himself  headed  the  army  and  in 
October,  1415,  inflicted  upon  the  French  the 
crushing  defeat  of  Agincourt  wherein  10,000 
Frenchmen   lay   dead   upon   the   field.      Never 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  181 

since  Agincourt  has  the  oriflamme  left  the  altar 
of  Saint  Denis. 

The  whole  country  was  in  a  state  of  uproar, 
ready  to  change  every  existing  arrangement  in 
the  hope  that  what  succeeded  it  would  be  better. 
The  populace  of  Paris  rose  against  the  Armagn- 
acs  and  the  treachery  of  a  Burgundian  sympa- 
thizer admitted  the  friends  of  John  the  Fear- 
less. The  guardian  of  the  Porte  de  Buci  (in  the 
left  bank  wall  just  south  of  the  Tour  de  Nesle) 
was  an  iron  merchant  whose  place  of  business 
was  on  the  Petit  Pont,  the  western  bridge  con- 
necting the  Cite  with  the  left  bank.  This  man's 
son  stole  his  father's  keys  and  opened  the  gate 
to  the  Burgundians.  They  swarmed  into  the  city 
and  at  once  began  a  massacre  so  horrible  that 
the  streets  were  strewn  with  dead  bodies  which 
the  children  pulled  about  in  play.  The  Provost 
of  Paris  seized  the  dauphin,  afterwards  Charles 
VII,  then  a  lad  of  fifteen,  and  carried  him  in 
his  arms  to  the  Bastile  where  he  might  be  in 
safety.  The  insurgents  broke  in  to  the  Hotel 
Saint  Paul,  took  out  the  mad  king  and  led  him 
about  the  city  on  a  horse  on  the  pretense  that  he 
was  giving  his  approval  to  the  change  of  rule. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  he  was  a  mere  puppet  in  their 
hands. 

As   if  these   disturbances   were  not   enough, 
Paris,  toward  the  end  of  this  same  year  (1418), 


182       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

underwent  a  severe  attack  of  the  plague  during 
which  the  mortality  was  so  great  that  the  dead 
were  buried  in  ditches,  six  hundred  in  each 
trench.  Between  September  8  and  December  8, 
according  to  the  city  grave-diggers,  a  hundred 
thousand  people  were  buried  and  of  these  all  but 
about  a  dozen  in  every  four  or  five  hundred  were 
children.  It  is  small  wonder  that  the  Danse 
Macabre,  picturing  all  men  as  followed  through 
life  by  skeletons  giving  warning  of  death,  was 
painted  in  the  cemetery  of  the  Holy  Innocents, 
even  though  the  number  stated  by  the  grave-dig- 
gers would  seem  to  have  been  increased  by  the 
proverbial  libation-pouring  habits  of  the  profes- 
sion. Probably  fifty  thousand  is  nearer  the 
truth. 

Queen  Isabeau  was  ever  on  the  side  which  she 
thought  most  profitable  to  herself.  Just  now  she 
was  in  league  with  John  the  Fearless  who  had 
caused  her  to  be  named  regent.  With  him  she 
had  reentered  Paris ;  she  concurred  in  his  getting 
rid  of  the  Cabochiens  by  sending  them  out  of  the 
city  to  attack  the  Armagnacs  outside,  and  shut- 
ting the  gates  behind  them;  but  it  is  suspected 
that  she  was  not  ignorant  of  the  plot  to  murder 
the  duke  which  was  carried  out  the  next  year. 

John  the  Fearless  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Philip  the  Good,  and  he  became  the  queen's  ad- 
viser.   The  battle  of  Agincourt  had  given  Henry 


THE    OLDEST    KNOWN    MAP    OF 
The  top  of 


PARIS,     PROBABLY    I5TH    CENTURY, 
the  page  is  east. 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  183 

V  of  England  the  right  to  dictate  the  terms  of 
the  Treaty  of  Troyes.  By  it  Queen  Isabeau 
practically  gave  away  the  crown  which  belonged 
to  her  son  Charles,  bestowed  her  daughter,  Cath- 
erine, in  marriage  on  Henry,  and  yielded  the  re- 
gency of  France  to  Henry  during  the  lifetime  of 
the  mad  king.  Burgundians  and  English  escorted 
Henry  V  into  Paris  at  the  end  of  December, 
1420.  He  made  the  Louvre  his  residence  and 
put  English  officers  in  charge  of  the  Bastille  and 
the  other  fortifications.  The  Parisians  at  first 
received  the  newcomers  with  delight,  for  so  worn 
WPS  the  city  with  quarreling  and  fighting  that 
the  advent  of  a  new  element  was  looked  upon 
with  hope.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
Henry's  sternness  and  the  arrogance  of  his  fol- 
lowers made  them  disliked,  and  the  new  element 
was  found  to  be  an  element  of  discord.  Between 
the  regent  and  the  Church  there  were  continual 
dissensions,  for  the  bishops  refused  to  confirm 
Henry's  appointments  of  prelates  sympathetic 
with  England. 

In  addition  to  the  constant  disturbances  that 
agitated  the  streets  the  city  was  in  a  pitiable 
state  in  other  ways.  Famine  and  plague  had 
done  their  work  thoroughly,  and  the  population 
was  much  reduced;  the  always  exorbitant  taxes 
drove  property  owners  out  of  the  city  into  the 
countrj'',  which  they  found  in  such  bad  case  that 


184       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

even  the  wolves  went  from  the  country  into  the 
city,  and  made  nightly  raids  upon  the  cemeteries. 
Children  died  in  the  streets  from  hunger,  dogs 
were  eaten  as  a  delicacy,  and  the  demands  of 
beggars  upon  the  seemingly  well-to-do  were  more 
in  the  nature  of  threats  than  appeals. 

Henry  V  died  in  August,  1422,  and  Charles 
the  Well-Beloved  followed  him  to  the  grave  in 
October  of  the  same  year.  Henry's  body  lay  in 
state  at  Saint  Denis  before  it  was  taken  to  Eng- 
land. Charles's  subjects  came  to  view  the  re- 
mains of  their  poor  tortured  king  during  the 
three  weeks  that  it  rested  at  the  Hotel  Saint  Paul 
before  being  taken  to  Notre  Dame  and  then  to 
Saint  Denis.  Over  his  grave  at  Saint  Denis  the 
little  English  prince,  Henry  VI,  only  a  few 
months  old,  was  acknowledged  king  of  France. 
The  duke  of  Bedford  became  regent,  and  the 
English  rose  was  quartered  on  the  arms  of  Paris. 

The  rightful  king,  Charles  VII,  crowded  out 
of  Paris,  fought  with  small  success  through  the 
middle  of  France,  until  Jeanne  Dare,  the  in- 
spired peasant  of  Domremy,  led  his  forces  to 
such  success  that  she  dared  besiege  Paris.  She 
established  her  army  on  the  northwest  of  the  city 
before  the  St.  Honore  Gate,  and  there  she  fell, 
wounded  by  a  shaft,  but  a  short  distance  from 
the  spot  where  her  equestrian  statue  stands  now 
on  the  Place  des  Pyramides.    It  would  have  been 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  185 

easier  for  her  if  death  had  come  to  her  then  than 
later  in  the  flames  of  the  Rouen  market  place. 

It  was  about  a  month  before  her  trial — some 
seven  years  after  the  death  of  Charles  VI — that 
Henry  VI  was  crowned  king  of  France  in  the 
cathedral  of  Notre  Dame  (1431).  The  Eng- 
lish lords  made  a  brave  showing  at  the  ceremony, 
but  there  were  few  of  the  French  nobles  present, 
though  many  sent  representatives  who  wore  their 
escutcheons.  So  niggardly  were  the  English 
after  the  service  at  the  church  that  the  people, 
who  were  accustomed  to  liberal  largesse  on  such 
occasions,  declared  that  there  would  have  been 
more  generosity  shown  at  the  wedding  of  a  bour- 
geois jeweler, 

Charles,  who  had  been  consecrated  at  Rheims 
in  1429  as  the  fulfillment  of  the  dearest  wish  of 
the  Pucelle,  tried  once  more,  in  1436,  to  win  his 
city  from  the  English.  This  time  his  general,  the 
Constable  de  Richemont,  entered  by  the  Porte 
Saint  Jacques  on  the  south  and  advanced 
through  the  city  unresisted.  The  English,  to  the 
number  of  about  fifteen  hundred,  took  refuge 
in  the  Bastille,  whence  they  were  starved  out  in 
short  order  and  escaped  by  the  Porte  Saint  An- 
toine  into  the  fields.  A  year  later  Charles  made 
his  official  entry  into  the  town  which  he  had  left 
nineteen  years  before  when  the  provost  rescued 
him  from  the  onslaught  of  the  Burgundians.    It 


186       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

was  a  solemn  scene  when  the  restored  king  knelt 
before  the  altar  of  Notre  Dame  to  give  thanks 
for  his  return. 

When  he  went  to  the  palace  on  the  Cite  he 
must  have  stood  in  need  of  all  the  composure  that 
religion  could  give  him  for  there  he  saw  among 
the  statues  of  the  kings  of  France  the  statue  of 
Henry  V  of  England!  Charles  did  not  have  it 
taken  down.  It  stood  with  mutilated  face  to 
make  public  show  of  his  scorn. 

The  English  captured  at  Pontoise  were 
drowned  at  the  Greve  soon  after.  Paris  no 
longer  welcomed  the  stranger. 

The  city  itself  was  forlorn  enough.  So  poorly 
was  it  protected  that  again  wolves  made  their 
way  through  the  gates  which  their  keepers  were 
too  languid  or  too  indifferent  to  guard  properly. 
It  is  said  that  in  one  week  of  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, 1438,  no  fewer  than  forty  persons  were 
killed  by  the  hungry  beasts  in  Paris  and  its  im- 
mediate neighborhood.  Twenty-four  thousand 
dwellings  stood  vacant. 

Charles  reorganized  the  administration  of 
Paris,  restoring  the  elections  of  city  officials 
which  his  father  had  suppressed,  and  establishing 
a  fairly  satisfactory  arrangement  of  taxes.  A 
marked  addition  to  the  royal  power  lay  in  the 
organization  of  a  standing  army  devoted  to  the 
royal  interests.    It  was  thus  that  he  utilized  the 


THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR  187 

energy  of  the  adventurers  who  had  grown  irre- 
sponsible through  the  disturbed  state  of  the  coun- 
try. By  the  aid  of  these  soldiers  he  was  enabled 
to  put  down  the  nobility  who  tried  to  revolt  from 
his  new  ordinances  and  place  the  dauphin,  after- 
wards Louis  XI,  on  the  throne.  Louis  did  not 
object,  but  Charles  enlisted  the  good-will  of  the 
bourgeoisie,  and,  chiefly  because  he  did  not  ask 
them  for  money  or  soldiers,  they  gave  both  to  him 
with  such  willingness  that  the  lords  took  heed  that 
a  new  power  was  confirming  the  royal  attitude. 
It  was  not  the  end  of  his  troubles  with  the 
dauphin  who  remained  ever  rebelliously  opposed 
to  his  father,  but  when  one  lord  was  obliged  to  let 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  arbitrate  his  quarrels, 
and  when  another  was  thrust  into  a  sack  and 
thrown  into  the  Seine  their  turbulence  was  at 
least  discom*aged. 

With  his  domestic  troubles  thus  quieted 
Charles  could  devote  his  attention  to  the  war  with 
England,  and  he  did  so  in  painstaking  contrast 
to  the  almost  lethargic  indifference  of  his  earlier 
years.  The  contest  dragged  its  weary  length 
along  until  October,  1453  when  Charles  marched 
victorious  into  Bordeaux.  Calais  was  all  that 
was  left  to  England. 

Eight  years  later  (1461)  Charles  "the 
Victorious,"  who  had  spent  little  time  in  Paris, 
died  elsewhere.     Stormy  as  had  been  his  reign 


188       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

and  unworthy  as  had  been  his  character,  he  never- 
theless left  his  kingdom  not  only  at  peace  but 
with  the  royal  power  strengthened  by  the  friend- 
liness of  the  burgher  class  and  possessed  of  an 
efficient  weapon  in  the  standing  army.  France 
was  ready  for  the  new  order  which  was  to  begin 
under  Charles's  son,  Louis  XI. 


CHAPTER  XI 

PARIS  OF  THE  LATER    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY 

WITH  Charles  VII's  son,  Louis  XI 
(1461-1483),  the  modem  history  of 
France  may  be  said  to  begin,  since  he 
substituted  the  use  of  brain  for  the  use  of  muscle 
in  the  management  of  affairs.  His  earliest  at- 
tempts at  government  seem  not  to  have  been  suc- 
cessful, since  at  the  end  of  four  years  he  had 
alienated  every  class  of  society.  The  League  of 
the  Public  Welfare  was  formed  to  oppose  him, 
and  it  included  nobles,  clergy,  burghers  and 
populace,  each  of  whom  had  its  own  serious 
grievance.  Louis  had  a  well-disciplined  army 
but  he  could  not  be  in  all  parts  of  his  king- 
dom at  once,  and  while  his  attention  was  given 
elsewhere  his  enemies  approached  Paris.  The 
moral  effect  of  the  capture  of  Paris  was  to  be 
dreaded  almost  as  much  as  its  actual  loss,  and 
the  king  made  himself  active  in  trying  to  pre- 
vent the  misfortune.  Unlike  any  ruler  preced- 
ing him  his  first  efforts  were  always  diplomatic. 
Instead  of  rushing  troops  to  Paris  he  sent 
messages  of  appeal  to  every  class  within  the 
walls.    They  roused  no  response.    There  were  in 

189 


190       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  University  some  twenty-five  thousand  stu- 
dents, no  inconsiderable  force,  but  the  Rector 
refused  to  arm  them  for  their  monarch's  sup- 
port. The  burghers  were  similarly  lacking  in 
enthusiasm. 

Marching  in  person  to  Paris  Louis  sacrificed 
a  part  of  his  army  to  engage  the  attention  of  the 
enemy  whose  forces  he  passed,  and  entered  the 
city.  His  presence  accomplished  what  his  mes- 
sages could  not  bring  to  pass.  He  and  the  queen 
reviewed  a  militia  force  of  some  70,000  men,  for 
the  burghers  became  willing  to  fight  for  a  king 
who  had  the  good  sense  to  ask  their  advice — even 
if  he  did  not  follow  it — and  he  never  failed  to 
work  for  their  esteem.  For  the  first  time  in 
French  history  merit  ranked  position. 

The  story  of  Louis'  reign  is  a  tale  of  fight- 
ing and  intrigue,  with  a  constantly  increasing 
settlement  of  power  in  the  monarch.  Provinces 
fell  into  his  hands ;  his  enemies  once  in  his  grasp, 
never  escaped.  He  was  Louis  the  Spider,  al- 
ways weaving  his  webs,  seldom  doing  it  in  vain. 
France  had  a  greater  feeling  of  unity  now  than 
before  the  English  wars,  and  the  power  was  still 
more  solidly  centralized  in  the  crown. 

Such  activities  left  the  king  not  much  time  for 
Paris.  When  he  was  there  he  lived  in  the  Hotel 
des  Tournelles  which  Charles  V  had  built,  per- 
sisting in  his  affection  for  it  although  he  was 


THE    CHURCHES    OF    SAINT    ETIENNE-DU   MONT    AND    OF    SAINTE    GENEVIEVE 

IN     I7TH     CENTURY. 

See  page  207. 


JUBE    IN    THE    CHURCH    OF    SAINT    ETIENNE-DU-MONT. 
See  page  193. 


THE  LATER  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY   191 

nearly  captured  there  at  one  time  by  some  of  his 
followers  who  were  in  a  plot  to  seize  his  person. 
He  curried  favor  with  the  people  by  calling  him- 
self simply  a  "burgher  of  Paris,"  he  himself 
lighted  the  Saint  John's  Eve  bonfire  on  the 
Greve,  he  walked  about  the  city  in  a  fashion  un- 
known, to  royalty  before,  and  he  dined  in  shabby 
dress  at  the  public  table  of  any  tavern  that 
seemed  convenient. 

Something  of  the  king's  implacability  may  be 
guessed  from  the  punislmients  and  tortures  which 
were  common  in  his  reign.  His  Constable,  Saint 
Pol,  was  executed  on  the  Greve  and  a  shaft 
twelve  feet  high,  erected  on  the  spot,  warned 
others  not  to  commit  his  faidt.  Another  man  of 
equal  rank  was  imprisoned  in  an  iron  cage  in  the 
Bastille  until  he  was  executed.  During  his  cap- 
tivity Louis  learned  that  his  chains  had  been  re- 
moved for  a  short  time  in  order  that  he  might 
go  to  church.  He  ordered  that  they  should  not 
be  taken  off  again  except  when  he  was  tortured. 
A  man  convicted  of  conspiracy  was  beheaded  and 
his  head  was  placed  on  a  staff  in  front  of  the 
Hotel  de  Ville. 

The  period  of  occupation  by  the  English  had 
left  Paris  with  much  dilapidation,  for  people 
who  were  not  thinking  of  permanency  were  not 
thinking  of  building  and  but  little  of  repairing. 
Even  though  a  reign  had  intervened  there  was 


192       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

much  to  be  done  toward  restoring  the  Gothic 
city,  but  Louis  himself  built  little.  His  interests 
were,  perhaps,  more  far-reaching.  For  instance 
his  intelligence  saw  at  once  the  value  of  the  print- 
ing press,  and  he  gave  his  consent  to  the  estab- 
lishment near  the  Sorbonne  of  several  printers 
whose  early  work  hastened  to  spread  the  renais- 
sance of  classical  learning  which  took  place  when 
the  fall  of  Constantinople  (1453)  dispersed  the 
scholars  of  the  East  among  the  countries  of  the 
West.  Over  the  ancient  Roman  roads  that 
pierced  Paris  from  north  to  south  they  made 
their  way  into  the  city  which  had  been  increas- 
ingly attractive  to  students  ever  since  Alcuin  es- 
tabhshed  there  a  school  for  Charlemagne.  The 
colleges  clustered  around  the  Mont  Sainte  Gene- 
vieve absorbed  them  rapidly,  and  the  Rector  who 
governed  the  University  ruled  over  a  notable 
accession  to  his  people  on  the  left  bank.  Louis 
welcomed  these  wanderers  for  what  they  gave  to 
France,  and  they  gave  generously,  for  with  them 
came  the  new  spirit  which  touched  not  letters 
alone  but  every  form  of  art. 

Another  of  Louis'  organizations  was  the 
postal  service  which  sent  letters  by  messenger 
from  Paris  to  all  parts  of  France. 

There  is  no  description  of  the  Paris  of  Louis' 
time  more  vivid  than  Victor  Hugo's  in  "  Notre 
Dame  de  Paris."     The  narrow  streets,  the  tall. 


THE  LATER  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY   193 

high-pitched  houses,  the  town  spreading  its  busi- 
ness interests  to  the  north  and  its  collegiate  in- 
terests to  the  south  with  the  Cite  and  its  many 
churches  lying  at  the  foot  of  the  towers  of  the 
great  cathedral — all  these  stand  forth  sharply  in 
the  second  chapter  of  the  Third  Book.  The  Pro- 
vost ruled  the  Ville,  the  Rector  the  University 
and  the  Bishop  the  Cite. 

Ogival  or  Gothic  architecture  had  been  a 
growth,  every  part  added  with  a  meaning.  Its 
development  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies was  chiefly  in  details,  windows,  for  exam- 
ple, being  better  drawn  though  less  harmonious, 
and  rose  windows  increasing  in  elaboration  until 
they  seemed  the  flames  which  gave  their  name  to 
the  flamboyant  style  of  architectm'e.  Decora- 
tion grew  over-elaborate.  It  became  customary 
to  build  chapels  along  the  side  aisles  of  the  nave, 
and  a  gallery  separating  the  choir  and  the  nave. 
There  is  but  one  such  gallery  or  juhe  in  Paris 
to-day,  that  of  the  Church  of  Saint  Etienne-du- 
Mont. 

After  the  Hundred  Years'  War  was  over  and 
the  country  knew  peace  again  it  was  natural  that 
the  building  of  churches  should  begin  once  more. 
It  is  to  this  time  that  the  church  of  Saint 
Laurent  belongs,  built  on  the  site  of  an  old  mon- 
astery; Saint  Nicholas-of-the-Fields  not  far 
away ;  Saint  Germain  1' Auxerrois,  to  which  a  bit 


194       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

here  and  a  bit  there  had  been  added  from  very- 
early  days ;  Saint  Severin  on  the  left  bank.  This 
church  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  modern 
Paris,  crowded  as  it  is  into  the  old  left  bank  quar- 
ter near  Saint  Julien-le-Pauvre,  its  fa9ade  taken 
bodily  from  Saint  Pierre-aux-Boeufs,  the  ancient 
Cite  chm-ch  of  the  Butchers'  Corporation  when 
it  was  demolished,  its  north  doorway  adorned 
with  two  lions  between  which  the  priests  stood  to 
decide  causes,  and  its  walls  within  decorated  with 
tablets  given  to  record  many  kinds  of  gratitude, 
from  that  for  the  passing  of  a  successful  school 
examination  to  that  for  a  happy  marriage. 

Of  examples  of  domestic  architecture  of  this 
time  there  are  still  standing  several  examples. 
The  little  tower  on  the  house  from  which  Louis 
of  Orleans  went  to  his  death  is  authentic,  so  is  the 
tower  of  John  the  Fearless,  once  a  part  of  the 
palace  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy,  later  the  home 
of  a  troop  of  players,  and  now  a  curious  specta- 
tor of  a  rushing  twentieth  century  business 
street. 

Louis  restored  the  gardens  of  the  palace  on 
the  Cite,  and,  although  he  did  not  live  there,  he 
established  an  oratory  near  the  apartments  of 
Saint  Louis,  and  another  from  which  he  could 
look  through  a  "  squint "  into  the  Sainte 
Chapelle. 


CHURCH    OF    SAINT    SEVERIN. 


THE  LATER  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY   195 

So  good  a  financier  was  he  that  there  was 
never  any  demand  on  the  people — after  he  had 
learned  his  early  lessons — for  money  for  city  im- 
provements. Not  being  asked  to  pay  for  them 
the  bm-ghers  were  enthusiastic  in  their  coopera- 
tion in  such  repairs  as  the  king  undertook.  The 
Hotel  de  Ville  was  one  such  undertaking  for  a 
century  had  passed  since  l^tienne  INIarcel  had 
bought  it  and  it  was  some  two  hundred  years  old 
then.  The  bridges  over  the  Seine  were  patched 
up  to  last  a  while  longer,  but  it  was  not  long  after 
Louis'  death  that  the  Pont  Notre  Dame  col- 
lapsed, houses  and  all,  causing  the  death  of  sev- 
eral people. 

A  rather  curious  instance  of  the  persistency  of 
habit  in  Paris — a  persistency  which  marks  the 
French  of  to-day — may  be  noticed  by  compar- 
ing the  testimony  of  a  chronicler  of  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century,  with  that  of  Villon,  the  poet  of 
the  fifteenth.  To  be  sure  the  elder  author's  state- 
ment is  serious  and  the  later  man's  jocose,  but 
there  is  an  imdoubted  truth  behind  it.  "  The 
Petit  Pont,"  says  Guy  de  Bazoches,  "  belongs  to 
the  dialecticians,  who  pace  up  and  down,  disput- 
ing." Villon's  mention  of  the  usage,  "  with  a 
difference,"  is  in  the  third  stanza  of  his  tribute 
to  the  fluency  and  wit  which  he  describes  in  his 


196       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 
A  BALLAD  OF  PARIS  WOMEN  ^ 

Bright  talkers  do  the  walls  of  Florence  hold; 
Venetian  damsels'  repartee  is  gay; 
The  ancient  ladies  in  their  courts  of  old 
With  merry  gibe  enlivened  the  long  day. 
But  whether  she  be  Lombardese  or  Roman, 
Or,  if  you  please,  in  great  Genoa  born, 
A  Piedmont  or  a  brilliant  Savoy  woman — 
The  Paris  maiden  puts  them  all  to  scorn. 

The  belles  of  lovely  Naples,  so  they  say, 
In  clever  conversation  take  great  pride ; 
German  and  Prussian  maids  with  chatter  gay 
Entrance  the  swains  that  in  those  lands  abide. 
Whether  she  live  in  Greece  or  Egypt,  then, 
Or  Hungary  or  other  land  adorn, 
A  Spaniard  be  or  dark-browed  Castellan — 
The  Paris  maiden  puts  them  all  to  scorn. 

Heavy  of  speech  are  Swiss  girls  and  Breton, 
The  Gascon  also  and  the  Toulouse  maid. 
Two  chatterboxes  from  the  Petit  Pont 
Would  without  effort  put  them  in  the  shade. 
Whether  in  Calais  or  in  fair  Lorraine 
The  maiden  lives  or  greets  an  English  morn, 
Whether  she's  Picard  or  Valencienne — 
The  Paris  maiden  puts  them  all  to  scorn. 

Envoi 

For  sparkling  wit,  then,  give  the  foremost  prize, 
O  Prince,  to  damsels  who  are  Paris  born. 
Though  we  may  jest  with  bright  Italian  eyes. 
The  Paris  maiden  puts  them  all  to  scorn. 

^Paraphrased  by  James  Ravenel  Smith. 


THE  LATER  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  197 

Louis'  son,  Charles  VIII  (1483-1498), 
reigned  with  a  personal  enthusiasm  which  dimin- 
ished the  power  of  the  nobles,  yet  permitted  the 
rise  of  the  Third  Estate,  the  political  combina- 
tion of  the  peasantry  and  the  citizens  or  bour- 
geois class.  He  repaired  the  palace  and  the 
Sainte  Chapelle  in  which  he  introduced  an  organ. 
His  interest  in  Italy  being  excited  Charles  be- 
gan a  war  there  of  no  great  importance  in  itself, 
but  interesting  as  bringing  to  France  a  knowl- 
edge of  art  and  architecture,  which,  when  in- 
creased at  the  time  of  Louis  XII's  (1498-1515) 
southern  expedition,  imposed  ready-made  upon 
France  the  style  called  Renaissance. 

This  style  was  a  renewal  of  the  classic  in- 
fluence. It  flattened  roofs  and  doors  and  win- 
dows, and  decorated  with  designs  borrowed  or 
copied  from  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  An  inter- 
mediate style  shows  a  mixture  of  Gothic  and 
Renaissance  as  was  natural  in  this  period  of 
architectural  change.  While  roofs  and  windows 
were  flattening  there  were  frequent  combinations 
of  pointed  roofs  and  flat  windows,  of  pointed 
windows  and  flat  roofs.  Sculptors  were  loath 
entirely  to  give  up  Gothic  decoration  yet  were 
eager  to  show  their  knowledge  of  Renaissance. 
The  result  is  called  Transition,  and  often  is  too 
conglomerate  to  be  pleasing.  The  most  charm- 
ing example  in  Paris  is  the  Hotel  de  Cluny, 


198       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

built  adjoining  the  Thermes  by  the  Abbots  of 
Cluny  and  rebuilt  by  Louis  XII.  ^  Exquisite 
in  every  detail,  and  filled  with  one  of  the  best 
collections  of  medieval  domestic  art  in  Europe 
it  is  a  joy  to  the  architect  and  the  antiquarian. 
No  happier  afternoon  can  be  spent  in  Paris  than 
in  roaming  through  these  treasure-laden  rooms 
and  then  in  sitting  in  the  Garden  of  the  Thermes, 
letting  the  eye  wander  from  the  Roman  ruins 
sixteen  centuries  old,  massive  and  severe,  to  the 
lighter  elegances  of  the  medieval  abbey,  and 
then  through  the  bars  of  the  enclosure  to  the 
rushing  streets  of  modern  Paris.  The  French 
babies  rolling  on  the  grass  are  growing  up  with 
such  contrasts  so  usual  to  them  that  they  never 
will  know  the  thrill  that  fires  the  American  at 
the  sight  of  these  links  in  the  chain  of  a  great 
city's  history. 

iSee  illustration  opposite  page  116. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PAEIS   OF   THE  EENAISSANCE 

CHARLES  VIII  died  without  direct  heirs 
and  the  crown  fell  to  Louis  XII,  a  grand- 
son of  that  duke  of  Orleans  who  had 
played  so  sorry  a  part  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
VI,  the  mad  king,  and  who  had  been  assassinated 
by  the  ruffians  of  John  the  Fearless.  This 
change  threw  the  reigning  line  into  the  hands  of 
what  is  known  as  the  Valois-Orleans  family.  Of 
that  branch  of  the  Capets  the  most  brilliant  mon- 
arch was  Francis  I,  Louis  XII's  successor,  a  son 
of  his  cousin,  the  count  of  Angouleme. 

Three  score  years  had  passed  after  the  fall  of 
Constantinople  when  Francis  I  came  to  the 
thone,  young,  alert,  intelligent,  progressive.  He 
was  fond  of  literature  and  the  arts,  and  the  re- 
vival of  ancient  letters  and  the  importation  of 
Italian  paintings  and  architecture  roused  him  to 
vivid  interest ;  he  was  ambitious  and  the  discovery 
of  America  spurred  him  to  claim  a  share  for 
France;  the  aspirations  of  Emperor  Charles  V, 
urged  him  to  dispute  a  rivalry  which  threatened 
his  own  career  and  the  integrity  of  his  kingdom. 

199 


200       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Louis  XII  had  been  called  the  "  Father  of  his 
People  "  because  of  the  care  with  which  he  had 
nursed  back  to  economic  health  the  depleted 
forces  of  France  which  Louis  XI  had  begun  to 
restore.  It  is  even  told  of  him  that  he  returned 
part  of  a  tax  after  it  had  paid  the  demand  for 
which  it  had  been  levied.  Such  a  proceeding  was 
unknown  before,  and  it  is  small  wonder  that  his 
subjects  adored  him.  Francis  reaped  the  benefit 
of  his  predecessor's  social  and  financial  intelli- 
gence. 

Of  united  national  feeling  there  was  more  at 
the  beginning  of  Francis's  reign  than  there  ever 
had  been,  and  power  was  more  concentrated  in 
the  king  than  it  ever  had  been.  Feudalism  with 
its  picturesque  and  brutal  individualism  had  been 
outgrown.  With  the  disappearance  of  the  need 
for  fortified  dwellings  the  rural  strongholds  of 
the  nobility  were  modified  into  pleasant  cha- 
teaux, while  their  masters,  not  obliged  to  stay  at 
home  to  be  ready  to  fight  quarrelsome  neighbors, 
were  free  to  join  the  king  in  Paris  or  at  Fontaine- 
bleau.  Thus  there  was  formed  for  the  first  time 
a  court  consisting  of  more  than  the  retinue  nec- 
essary for  the  conduct  of  the  royal  household. 
For  the  first  time,  too,  the  nobles  brought  the 
women  of  their  families  to  court,  with  the  result 
that  dress  and  festivities  became  more  brilliant 
than  ever  before,  and  language  developed  a  pre- 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE  201 

cision  which  marks  this  period  as  the  beginning 
of  the  use  of  Modern  French. 

Francis  himself  wrote  not  badly  and  his  en- 
couragement of  writers  won  him  the  title  of 
"  Father  of  French  Letters."  Here  is  his  tribute 
to  the  intelligent  favorite  of  Charles  VII. 

EPITAPH  ON  AGNES  SOREL  ^ 

Here  lies  entombed  the  fairest  of  the  fair: 

To  her  rare  beauty  greater  praise  be  given, 

Than  holy  maids  in  cloistered  cells  may  share, 
Or  hermits  that  in  deserts  live  for  heaven ! 

For  by  her  charms  recovered  France  arose, 

Shook  off  her  chains  and  triumphed  o'er  her  foes. 

Francis's  sister,  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  was 
equally  enthusiastic  and  talented  and  gathered 
about  her  a  notable  group  of  writers.  Her  af- 
fection for  her  brother  was  extraordinarily  ten- 
der. After  his  death  she  wrote  the  following 
poem,  translated  in  Longfellow's  "  Poetry  of 
Europe." 

'Tis  done,  a  father,  mother  gone, 

A  sister,  brother  torn  away. 
My  hope  is  now  in  God  alone, 

Whom  heaven  and  earth  alike  obey. 
Above,  beneath,  to  Him  is  known — 
The  world's  wide  compass  is  his  own. 

*From  Longfellow'3  "Poetry  of  Europe." 


202       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

I  love — but  in  the  world  no  more, 
Nor  in  gay  hall  or  festal  bower; 

Not  the  fair  forms  I  prized  before — 

But  Him,  all  beauty,  wisdom,  power, 

My  Savior,  who  has  cast  a  chain 

On  sin  and  ill  and  woe  and  pain! 

I  from  my  memory  have  effaced 

All  former  joys,  all  kindred,  friends; 

All  honors  that  my  station  graced 

I  hold  but  snares  that  fortune  sends ; 

Hence !  joys  by  Christ  at  distance  cast, 

That  we  may  be  his  own  at  last! 

Francis  founded  the  College  of  France  in 
Paris  for  the  study  of  classical  languages,  testi- 
mony to  the  influence  that  had  seized  the  coun- 
try after  the  southern  expeditions  of  Charles 
VIII  and  Louis  XII.  Francis's  establishment 
provided  merely  for  the  maintenance  of  a  fac- 
ulty, and  it  was  not  until  the  next  reign  that  the 
question  of  housing  separate  from  any  of  the 
existing  schools  came  up.  It  was  not  until  the 
time  of  Marie  de  INIedicis  that  the  building  really 
was  provided.  Since  that  time  the  college  has 
been  rebuilt  twice,  restored  and  enlarged  until  it 
is  now  an  imposing  pile  rising  on  the  Mont  Sainte 
Genevieve  near  the  Sorbonne.  Its  lectures 
which  are  intended  for  adults  are  free,  and  the 
institution  is  not  a  part  of  the  University  but 
is  under  the  Minister  of  Education. 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE  203 

Francis  established  a  government  printing 
office  and  permitted  the  use  of  private  presses 
though  the  books  that  issued  from  them  were 
censored.  There  was  a  time,  indeed,  when  it  be- 
came evident  that  men  were  thinking  for  them- 
selves and  that  untoward  happenings  were  the 
result,  when  all  printing  of  books  was  forbidden. 
Etienne  Dolet,  scholar,  writer  and  printer,  was 
one  of  those  who  suffered  from  the  king's  incon- 
stant mind.  He  was  charged  with  heresy,  tor- 
tured, hung  and  finally  burned  with  his  writings 
on  the  spot  where  his  statue  now  stands  in  the 
Place  Maubert. 

This  square  is  on  the  left  bank,  but  the  visual 
place  for  executions  was  the  Greve  in  front  of 
the  Hotel  de  Ville.  Near  the  Halles  was  a  pil- 
lory which  Francis  rebuilt  a  quarter  of  a  century 
after  the  people  had  destroyed  it.  It  was  an 
open  octagonal  tower  and  the  victims  inside  were 
placed  on  a  revolving  platform  so  that  they  might 
be  exposed  to  the  crowd  below. 

The  gorgeous  scene  that  was  enacted  when 
Francis  made  his  formal  entry  into  Paris  after 
the  death  of  Louis  XII  was  indicative  of  the 
brilliance  and  extravagance  of  his  whole  reign. 
It  was  his  superior  magnificence  that  lost  him  the 
partisanship  of  Henry  VIII  of  England  whose 
eyes  he  over-daz/led  at  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of 
Gold.     It  was  indeed  well  that  he  fell  heir  to 


204       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Louis  XII's  savings!  The  procession,  accord- 
ing to  the  Austrian  "  special  envoy,"  was  both 
*'  beautiful  and  gorgeous,"  and  Francis,  arrayed 
in  glistening  armor,  played  to  the  gallery  by 
making  his  handsome  horse,  white-and-silver 
decked,  rear  and  prance  so  that  his  royal  rider 
might  display  his  horsemanship. 

In  the  course  of  Francis's  prolonged  contest 
with  Charles  V — a  struggle  in  which  he  was  even 
imprisoned  at  Madrid — he  had  many  opportuni- 
ties to  see  in  Italy  and  Spain  the  art  of  a  former 
time  and  the  work  of  contemporary  painters  and 
sculptors  as  well.  Not  only  did  he  send  home 
many  examples  which  were  given  him  or  which 
he  captured  or  bought,  but  he  invited  to  France 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  then  an  old  man,  Andrea  del 
Sarto  and  Bevenuto  Cellini.  To  the  latter  he 
gave  a  lodging  in  the  Hotel  de  Nesle,  that  left 
bank  palace  of  which  the  Tour  de  Nesle  was  a 
part,  on  condition  that  he  secured  possession  of  it 
himself,  as  the  king  had  previously  made  a  pres- 
ent of  it  to  the  provost.  Cellini  armed  his  helpers 
and  servants  and  defended  his  gift  with  such  fe- 
rocity that  the  provost  left  him  alone. 

The  king's  influence  weighed  heavily  on  the 
side  of  the  humanist  reaction  against  the  auster- 
ities of  art  and  life  which  had  developed  under 
the  influence  of  an  all-dominant  church.  The 
pendulum  swung  back  and  painters  and  sculp- 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE         205 

tors  chose  less  ascetic  themes  for  brush  and  chisel. 
From  Francis's  time  on  there  was  also  a  keen  in- 
terest in  portraiture. 

A  man  of  this  king's  nature  was  not  content  to 
stay  long  in  one  place.  When  war  was  not  mak- 
ing its  demands  upon  him  he  was  visiting  all 
parts  of  his  kingdom  and  spending  no  little  time 
in  the  districts  where  hunting  was  good  and 
where  he  built  splendid  chateaux  so  that  he  and 
his  retinue  might  be  comfortably  housed.  Fon- 
tainebleau  and  St.  Germain-en-Laye  are  the  two 
best  known,  while  the  chateau  de  Madrid  in  the 
Bois  de  Boulogne,  adjoining  the  town  was  a 
charming  retreat  from  the  noise  of  the  city.  Ex- 
cept for  a  small  bit  included  in  a  restaurant  this 
building  is  no  longer  in  existence,  but  in  the 
Cours  la  Reine  on  the  right  bank  facing  the 
Seine  is  the  small  "  House  of  Francis  I  "  which 
the  king  built  at  Moret  in  1572,  and  which  an 
admirer  bought  and  removed  to  Paris  in  1826. 
It  is  an  exquisite  example  of  Renaissance  archi- 
tecture. 

During  the  peaceful  moments  of  the  reign, 
there  was  a  craze  for  building  and  Italian  archi- 
tects were  offered  handsome  inducements  to  exer- 
cise their  talents  on  French  soil.  It  was  a 
French  architect,  however,  Pierre  Lescot,  who 
pulled  down  the  Great  Tower,  the  oldest  part  of 
the  Louvre,   and   designed  that  portion  which 


206       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Francis  and  his  son,  Henry  II,  built,  the  south- 
western corner  of  the  eastern  quadrangle. 
Henry's  initial,  combined  with  the  "  D  "  and 
crescent  of  Diane  de  Poitiers,  are  visible  in  many 
places.  Francis's  signature  was  the  salamander, 
whose  lizard-like  length  fitted  comfortably  into 
many  decorative  schemes. 

Below  the  Great  Tower  there  must  have  been 
a  bed  of  soft  earth  of  some  sort,  for  it  was  found 
to  be  almost  impossible  to  fill  the  huge  hole  left 
when  the  Tower  was  demolished.  The  populace 
saw  in  the  strange  sinking  of  the  material 
dimiped  into  the  cavity  the  fulfillment  of  a  leg- 
endary threat  that,  the  fortress  being  meant  to 
stand  forever,  its  fall  would  be  marked  by  un- 
toward happenings.  In  fact  it  was  nearly  three 
hundred  years  before  modern  engineering  knowl- 
edge was  able  to  stop  the  seepage  that  caused  the 
trouble. 

During  one  of  the  intervals  of  peace  with 
Charles  V  the  emperor  visited  Paris.  Indeed  it 
was  the  necessity  for  making  elaborate  prepara- 
tions for  his  visit  that  brought  about  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  Louvre  whose  dilapidation  had  not 
been  appreciated  before.  The  emperor  was  met 
outside  the  eastern  wall  and  presented  with  the 
keys  of  the  city.  At  the  Saint  Antoine  gate  there 
was  a  triumphal  arch  and  the  cannon  of  the  Bas- 
tille roared  a  greeting  as  the  monarch  passed  be- 


THE    COLLEGE    OF    FRANCE.     FOUNDED     BY    FRANCIS     I     IN     1530. 
See  page  202. 


p     ^.iKii 


>MLk^ 


HOUSE    OF    FRANCIS     I     ON    THE    COURS-LA-REINE. 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE         207 

neath  it.  Farther  on  the  procession  stopped  for 
the  imperial  guest  to  witness  an  allegorical  play 
depicting  the  friendship  of  France  and  Ger- 
many. Over  the  Notre  Dame  Bridge,  covered 
with  ivy,  Charles  went  to  the  cathedral  and  then 
to  the  palace  of  the  Cite,  where  he  supped.  Dur- 
ing his  visit  of  a  week  he  stayed  at  the  Louvre, 
and  was  so  brilliantly  entertained  that  upon  his 
departure  he  exclaimed,  "  Other  cities  are  merely 
cities ;  Paris  is  a  world  in  itself." 

The  chief  churches  built  in  Francis's  reign 
were  Saint  Etienne-du-Mont  (on  the  site  of  an 
earlier  edifice)  in  which  Sainte  Genevieve's  ashes 
now  rest,  Saint  Eustache,  the  church  of  the  mar- 
ket people  at  the  Halles,  and  the  flamboyant 
tower  of  Saint  Jacques-de-la-Boucher ie.  This 
tower  is  the  last  expression  of  the  Gothic,  while 
Saint  fitienne  and  Saint  Eustache  show  the 
Transition  combination  of  Gothic  and  Renais- 
sance. 

Etienne  Marcel's  Maison  aux  Piliers  had  been 
but  a  second-hand  affair.  By  1530  a  new  City 
Hall  was  imperative.  Its  corner  stone  was  laid 
amid  feasting  on  the  open  square  with  bread  and 
wine  for  all  comers  and  cries  of  "  Long  live  the 
king  and  the  city  fathers !  "  This  enthusiastic  be- 
ginning did  not  foretell  quick  work,  however,  for 
eighty  years   elapsed   before   the   building  was 


208       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

done.    Its  style  was  the  same  that  it  is  to-day  ex- 
cept in  the  development  of  details. 

It  was  the  old  Maison  aux  Piliers  that  had  seen 
the  dinner  given  to  Queen  Claude  by  the  city 
fathers  on  the  occasion  of  her  entrance  into  Paris 
after   Francis's   accession.     Louis   XII's   third 


Cellier's  Drawing  op  the  H^tel  de  Ville  in  1583. 

queen,  Mary,  an  English  princess,  was  the  first 
royal  lady  whom  the  city  fathers  had  ventured  to 
invite  to  partake  of  their  hospitality.  The  occa- 
sion had  not  been  entirely  successful,  for  so  great 
a  throng  pressed  in  to  the  city  hall  to  observe  the 
unusual  guests  that  the  waiters  "  hardly  had 
room  to  bring  the  food  upon  the  tables."  The 
arrangements  for  Queen  Claude's  entertainment 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE         209 

included  precautions  against  such  an  invasion. 
When  the  great  day  came  the  provost  of  the 
Merchants  and  the  lesser  officials,  clothed  flam- 
ingly  in  red  velvet  and  scarlet  satin  and  followed 
by  representatives  of  the  guilds  of  drapers, 
grocers,  goldsmiths,  dyers,  and  so  on,  went  to  a 
suburb  to  meet  their  lady  and  act  as  her  escort, 
and  her  majesty  was  graciously  appreciative  of 
all  their  attentions. 

While  the  Renaissance,  humanism  and  the  dis- 
covery of  the  New  World  were  exciting  men  to 
new  interests  they  also  did  their  part  in  promot- 
ing independence  of  thought.  With  ability  to 
read  the  Bible  in  the  original  came  questioning 
of  previous  interpretations.  There  grew  up  both 
within  and  without  the  Church  a  desire  to  reform 
it,  and  with  Calvin  and  Luther  there  came  into 
expression  not  only  a  protest  against  the  present 
state  of  affairs  but  a  formulation  of  a  new  be- 
lief. Rabelais  and  Montaigne  in  their  vastly  dif- 
ferent ways  worked  toward  the  same  end.  The 
movement  proved  to  be  one  of  those  appeals 
which  spread  like  a  flame  when  the  air  touches 
it.  Rich  and  poor,  noble  and  simple  responded 
to  the  plea,  and  Francis  found  himself  the 
ruler  of  people  ready  to  fly  at  each  other's  throats 
and  clamoring  for  him  to  let  loose  the  dogs  of 
persecution. 

Francis  was  a  Catholic  and  condemned  Prot- 


210       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

estantism  in  Francis,  but  in  Germany  he  allied 
himself  to  the  Protestant  party  against  the  em- 
peror. Henry  II  (1547-1559),  Francis's  son, 
did  the  same — and  won  some  territory  by  the 
manoeuver — although  he  had  strengthened  his 
Catholic  interests  by  marrying  Catherine  de 
JMedicis,  a  niece  of  the  Pope,  and  showed  himself 
by  no  means  friendly  to  the  democratic  ideas 
which  the  new  religion  fostered.  His  strength 
constantlj^  was  spent  against  the  movement  even 
to  the  end  of  his  reign  when  he  made  an  alliance 
for  purposes  of  persecution  with  Philip  II  of 
Spain,  husband  of  "  Bloody  Mary  "  of  England. 
One  of  the  first  fruits  of  this  union  with  the  land 
of  the  Inquisition  was  the  trial  of  a  distinguished 
member  of  the  Parliament,  Anne  du  Bourg. 
Henry's  death  merely  interrupted  the  examina- 
tion and  du  Bourg  was  burned  on  the  Greve  be- 
fore the  City  Hall. 

The  Paris  Protestants  or  Huguenots  lived 
chiefly  in  the  Faubourg  Saint  Germain  on  the 
left  bank. 

Henry's  chief  exploit  was  the  capture  of  Calais 
which  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  English  ever 
since  the  Hundred  Years'  War,  and  whose  loss 
meant  so  much  to  Queen  Mary  of  England  that 
she  is  said  to  have  declared  that  when  she  died 
"  Calais  "  would  be  found  written  on  her  heart. 

The  celebration  in  Paris  of  the  capture  of  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE  211 

long-lost  city  was  one  of  the  greatest  possible 
failures.  The  main  festivity  was  to  be  in  the 
evening  at  the  Maison  aux  Pihers.  It  poured  in 
torrents  sufficient  to  put  a  literal  as  well  as  a 
figurative  damper  on  any  pleasure-making. 
When  Henry  arrived  at  the  Place  de  Greve  the 
salutes  of  artillery  frightened  his  horses  and  he 
was  almost  thrown  down  as  he  alighted  from  his 
carriage.  At  supper  the  crowd  was  so  great  that 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  get  anything  to  eat. 
The  main  part  of  the  program  within  the  hall  was 
a  play  by  the  poet  Jodelle  who  has  left  an  amus- 
ing account  of  the  evening  of  "  My  Disaster." 
There  were  twelve  actors  in  his  musical  sketch, 
he  says.  Of  these  six  were  so  hoarse  that  they 
could  not  be  heard,  and  the  remaining  six  did  not 
know  their  parts.  One  of  the  characters,  Or- 
pheus, was  to  sing  a  song  in  the  king's  praise  so 
literally  moving  that  the  very  stones  followed  the 
singer  about  the  stage.  But,  alas,  the  property 
man  had  misunderstood  his  orders  and  instead  of 
preparing  two  rocks  (rochers)  he  had  arranged 
two  steeples  (clochers) .  When  the  unfortunate 
author,  who  had  a  part  himself,  saw  these  unex- 
pected constructions  coming  across  the  stage  he 
forgot  his  own  lines,  so  utter  was  his  amazement 
and  misery. 

Henry's  restless  reign  left  him  little  time  to 
spend  in  Paris  or  to  devote  to  its  beautifying. 


212       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Whenever  he  came  to  the  city  festivities  of  all 
sorts  ran  high  and  the  citizens  paid  for  it  all, 
though  their  temper  grew  sullen  as  the  demands 
and  the  power  of  the  crown  increased.  Henry  ex- 
pected the  city  fathers  to  meet  expenses  which 
they,  quite  reasonably,  classed  as  personal  mat- 
ters ;  for  instance,  a  charge  for  the  food  and  shel- 
ter and  care  of  a  lion,  a  dromedary  and  a  j  aguar, 
which  had  been  sent  to  the  king  from  Africa. 

Beyond  the  strengthening  of  the  right  bank 
fortifications,  some  addition  to  the  palace  of  the 
Cite,  and  the  continuation  of  the  new  Hotel  de 
Ville  and  of  Francis  I's  Louvre  Henry  did  prac- 
tically no  building.  His  "  H,"  sometimes  inter- 
laced with  his  wife's  "  C  "  and  sometimes  with 
Diane  de  Poitiers'  initial  topped  by  her  crescent, 
is  by  no  means  so  frequent  in  Paris  as,  for  exam- 
ple, in  Fontainebleau,  and  other  suburbs.  In  the 
courtyard  of  the  Palais  des  Beaux- Arts  is  the 
fa9ade  of  the  chateau  d'Anet  which  shows  the 
monogram,  and  is  a  beautiful  example  of  re- 
naissance architecture. 

A  needed  charity  was  instituted  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  Foundling  Hospital.  So  usual  was 
it  to  dispose  of  unwelcome  infants  that  cradles 
for  their  reception  were  placed  in  the  porch  of 
Notre  Dame  itself.  The  hospital  proved  not  an 
entire  success,  for  about  a  century  later  Saint 
Vincent  de  Paul  found  that  sorcerers,  beggars 


PARIS  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE         213 

and  gymnasts  were  buying  babies  from  the  hos- 
pital at  a  franc  apiece.  His  own  foundation  of  a 
children's  home  came  from  a  chance  meeting  with 
a  beggar  who  was  breaking  his  purchase's  legs  so 
that  its  wails  might  excite  pity  from  passers-by. 

Henry's  death  was  brought  about  by  one  of 
those  tragic  happenings  that  mar  times  of  at- 
tempted gayety.  Henry  was  marrying  off  his 
daughter  and  his  sister  for  political  reasons  and 
he  arranged  a  double  wedding.  The  festivities 
included  an  elaborate  supper  in  the  Great  Hall 
of  the  palace  of  the  City  and  a  tournament  in  the 
rue  Saint  Antoine.  The  king  himself  took  part 
in  the  joust,  by  accident  was  mortally  wounded 
by  Montgomery,  the  captain  of  the  Scottish 
guards,  and  died  in  the  near-by  Hotel  des 
Tournelles  a  few  days  after. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

PARIS   OF   THE   REFORMATION 

WHILE  Henry  II  lived  Catherine  de 
Medicis  was  not  conspicuous,  Henry 
yielding  rather  to  Diane  de  Poitiers 
than  to  his  wife,  but  the  queen-mother  wielded  a 
ruthless  power  over  her  three  young  sons  who 
succeeded  their  father  in  turn.  Through  her, 
also,  Italian  pictures  and  books  were  brought  in 
by  their  painters  and  authors,  Italian  architects 
transformed  French  buildings,  Italian  favorites 
filled  the  court,  where  they  introduced  the  ruffs 
and  padded  trunks  and  soft  crowned  toques  of 
Italian  fashions.  Paris  streets,  narrow  as  in  the 
days  when  their  Gothic  houses  were  first  built, 
widened  into  occasional  squares  meant  to  remind 
the  queen  of  her  southern  home. 

Francis  II  (1559-1560)  was  Heniy's  oldest 
son,  kno^vn  to-day  only  as  the  husband  of  Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots,  whom  he  married  in  Notre 
Dame  when  he  was  fourteen  and  she  was  sixteen. 
He  came  to  the  throne  a  twelvemonth  later  and 
during  the  one  short  year  of  his  reign  he  was  a 
tool  in  the  hands  of  the  ex-Italian  family  of  the 

214 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         215 

Guises  of  which  Mary's  mother  was  a  member. 
Throughout  France  quarrels  and  conspiracies 
were  rife,  all  having  for  their  basic  reason  dif- 
ferences in  religion  and  the  lack  of  tolerance 
which  could  not  allow  freedom  of  belief. 

Of  Francis's  reign  as  it  concerns  Paris  there  is 
nothing  of  interest  except  the  fact  that  his  wed- 
ding supper,  like  that  of  his  sister  a  year  later, 
was  given  in  the  Great  Hall  of  the  palace  of 
the  Cite. 

Francis's  death  gave  the  crown  to  his  next 
younger  brother,  Charles  IX  (1560-1574),  who 
was  but  eleven  years  old.  During  the  fourteen 
years  of  his  reign  Catherine  de  Medicis  ruled, 
first  as  regent  and  later  in  fact  though  not  in 
name.  Her  methods  were  tell-tale  of  her  nature. 
She  favored  Protestants  or  Catholics  as  the  mo- 
ment demanded,  she  promised  and  did  not  fulfil, 
she  deceived,  she  ordered  assassination,  she  de- 
praved the  morals  of  her  own  children.  All  the 
time  civil  war  went  on,  pausing  now  and  again 
but  never  entirely  ceasing. 

The  most  horrible  event  of  the  whole  hideous 
contest  was  the  massacre  of  the  Protestants  which 
took  place  on  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day,  August 
24,  1572.  Catherine  had  arranged  that  her 
daughter.  Marguerite  of  Valois,  should  marry 
Henry,  King  of  Navarre,  the  leader  of  the 
Protestants.     Whether   this   was    done   in   the 


216       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

hope  of  bringing  the  opposing  parties  together, 
or  whether  the  queen-mother's  intention  was  to 
decoy  as  many  prominent  Huguenots  as  possible 
to  Paris  it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  fact  that 
Henry's  mother,  Jeanne  d'Albret,  died  in  Paris 
a  few  weeks  before  the  wedding,  probably  from 
2)oison-saturated  gloves,  would  seem  to  lend 
color  to  the  latter  theory.  So  suspicious  of  evil 
were  the  Huguenots  that  it  is  said  that  one-half 
of  Henry  of  Navarre's  moustache  turned  white 
from  fear  when  he  saw  two  prominent  Catholics 
talking  together  a  little  while  before  the  wedding. 
Events  proved  that  such  suspicions  were 
not  groundless.  The  wedding  was  set  for  the 
seventeenth  of  August.  On  account  of  the  dif- 
ference between  the  religious  belief  of  Henry 
and  his  bride,  it  took  place  in  front  of  the  cathe- 
dral in  the  Parvis  or  Paradise  of  Notre  Dame. 
This  Avas  an  open  place  raised  above  the  level 
of  the  adjoining  streets  and  railed  from  it.  Mar- 
guerite was  so  unwilling  to  marry  Henry  that 
she  refused  her  consent  even  up  to  the  moment 
when  the  archbishop  demanded  it.  Her  brother, 
the  king,  met  the  emergency  by  seizing  her  head 
and  bobbing  it  and  the  service  went  on  as  if  she 
had  answered  a  legitimate  "  I  will."  After  the 
marriage  the  bride  heard  mass  in  the  cathedral 
while  the  bridegroom  admired  the  bishop's  gar- 
den.    Dinner  followed  at  the  bishop's  palace, 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         217 

and  supper  at  the  Louvre.  On  succeeding  days 
there  were  balls,  jousts,  and  masquerades. 

Four  days  later  Admiral  Coligny,  the  head  of 
the  Protestants,  was  attacked  by  a  paid  assassin 
but  not  killed.  This  piece  of  news  was  brought 
to  Charles  IX  while  he  was  playing  tennis  on 
one  of  the  courts  at  the  eastern  end  of  the 
Louvre. 

On  the  night  before  St.  Bartholomew's  Day 
the  Provost  of  the  Merchants  was  smnmoned  to 
the  Louvre  and  received  instructions  to  close  the 
city  gates,  to  fasten  the  chains  across  the  streets, 
and  to  arm  the  militia.  At  the  appointed  hour, 
or  rather,  owing  to  Catherine's  eagerness,  at  two 
in  the  morning,  an  hour  before  the  appointed 
time,  the  signal  was  given  on  the  right  bank  by 
the  bell  of  the  church  of  Saint  Germain  I'Aux- 
errois,  facing  the  eastern  end  of  the  Louvre,  and 
on  the  Cite  by  that  in  the  clock  tower  on  the 
palace.  Admiral  Coligny,  who  lived  just  north 
of  the  Louvre,  was  killed  in  his  bed  and  his  body 
thrown  from  the  window  to  the  pavement  where 
the  Duke  of  Guise  kicked  it. 

"  They  told  us  nothing  of  all  this,"  says  the 
bride,  Marguerite  of  Navarre,  who  has  left  an 
account  of  her  experiences.  "  I  saw  everybody 
in  action,  the  Huguenots  desperate  over  this  at- 
tack; M.  de  Guise  fearful  lest  they  take  ven- 
geance on  him,  whispering  to  everybody.     The 


218       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Huguenots  suspected  me  because  I  was  a  Catho- 
lic, and  the  Catholics  because  I  had  married  the 
king  of  Navarre  who  was  a  Huguenot.  On  this 
account  no  one  said  anything  to  me  about  it  until 
evening,  when  being  in  the  bedroom  of  the  queen, 
my  mother,  seated  on  a  chest  beside  my  sister  of 
Lorraine  whom  I  saw  to  be  very  sad,  as  the 
queen  my  mother  was  speaking  to  some  of  them 
she  noticed  me  and  told  me  to  go  to  bed.  As  I 
was  courtesying  to  her  my  sister,  weeping  bit- 
terly, seized  my  arm  and  stopped  me,  saying 
*  Sister,  don't  go.'  I  was  greatly  frightened. 
The  queen  my  mother  saw  it  and  called  my  sis- 
ter and  scolded  her  severely,  forbidding  her  to 
say  anything  to  me.  My  sister  told  her  that 
there  was  no  reason  to  sacrifice  me  like  that,  and 
that  if  they  discovered  anything  they  undoubt- 
edly would  avenge  themselves  on  me.  The  queen 
my  mother  replied  that  if  God  so  willed  I  should 
come  to  no  harm,  but,  whatever  happened,  I  must 
go,  for  fear  of  their  suspecting  something  which 
would  impede  the  outcome. 

"  I  saw  quite  well  that  they  were  disputing 
though  I  did  not  hear  their  words.  Again  she 
roughly  ordered  me  to  go  to  bed.  My  sister 
burst  into  tears  as  she  bade  me  good-night,  dar- 
ing to  say  nothing  more  to  me,  and  I  went  away 
thoroughly  stunned  and  overcome,  without  un- 
derstanding at  all  what  I  had  to  fear.    Suddenly 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         219 

when  I  was  in  my  dressing  room  I  began  to  pray 
God  to  take  me  under  his  protection  and  preserve 
me,  without  knowing  from  what  or  whom.  Upon 
that,  the  King  my  husband,  who  had  retired,  sum- 
moned me  to  his  room,  and  I  found  his  bed  sur- 
rounded by  thirty  or  forty  Huguenots  whom  I 
did  not  then  know,  for  I  had  only  been  married 
a  few  days.  They  talked  all  night  about  the  acci- 
dent that  had  befallen  the  Admiral,  resolving 
that  as  soon  as  morning  came  they  would  ask 
the  king  for  revenge  on  M.  de  Guise  and  that 
if  he  would  not  give  it  to  them  they  would  take 
it  for  themselves.  I  still  had  my  sister's  tears 
upon  my  mind  and  I  could  not  sleep  because  of 
the  fear  she  had  inspired  in  me,  though  I  knew 
not  of  what.  Thus  the  night  passed  without  my 
closing  my  eyes.  At  daybreak,  the  King  my  hus- 
band, suddenly  making  up  his  mind  to  ask  jus- 
tice from  King  Charles,  said  that  he  was  going 
to  play  tennis  until  the  King  should  awake.  He 
left  my  room  and  all  the  gentlemen  also.  I,  see- 
ing that  it  was  daylight,  thinking  that  the  danger 
of  which  my  sister  had  spoken  to  me  was  passed 
by,  overcome  with  sleep,  told  my  nurse  to  shut 
the  door  that  I  might  sleep  comfortably. 

"  An  hour  after  as  I  was  still  sleeping  there 
came  a  man  who  beat  on  the  door  with  hands  and 
feet  crying,  '  Navarre,  Navarre ! '  My  nurse, 
thinking  that  it  was  the  King  my  husband,  ran 


220       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

at  once  to  the  door  and  opened  it.  It  was  a  gen- 
tleman named  Leran  who  had  received  a  sword 
thrust  in  the  elbow  and  a  blow  on  the  arm  from 
a  halberd,  and  who  was  still  pm'sued  by  four 
archers  who  all  rushed  after  him  into  my  room. 
He,  wishing  to  save  himself,  flung  himself  on  to 
my  bed.  When  I  felt  the  man  grasp  me  I  flung 
myself  out  of  bed,  and  he  rolled  after  me  still 
clinging  to  me.  I  did  not  recognize  the  man  and 
I  did  not  know  whether  he  was  there  to  attack 
me,  or  whether  the  archers  were  after  him  or  me. 
We  both  screamed  and  we  were  equally  fright- 
ened. At  last,  by  God's  will,  M.  de  Nan9ay, 
captain  of  the  guards  came.  When  he  saw  in 
what  a  state  I  was,  though  he  was  sorry  he  could 
not  help  laughing.  He  reprimanded  the  guards 
severely  for  their  indiscretion,  sent  them  away 
and  granted  to  my  request  the  life  of  the  man 
who  was  still  holding  on  to  me.  I  made  him  lie 
down  and  have  his  wounds  dressed  in  my  dress- 
ing room  until  he  was  quite  recovered.  I  had 
to  change  my  clothes  for  the  wounded  man  had 
covered  me  with  blood.  M.  de  Nan9ay  told  me 
what  had  happened  and  assured  me  that  the  King 
my  husband  was  in  the  King's  room  and  that 
there  would  be  no  more  disturbance.  I  threw  a 
mantle  over  me  and  he  escorted  me  to  my  sister, 
Madame  de  Lorraine's,  room,  where  I  arrived 
more  dead  than  alive.    Just  as  I  entered  the  ante- 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         221 

chamber,  where  the  doors  were  all  open,  a  gen- 
tleman named  Bom-se,  escaping  from  the  pur- 
suit of  the  archers  was  pierced  by  a  halberd-thrust 
only  three  paces  away.  I  fell  in  the  opposite 
direction  into  JNI.  de  Nan9ay's  arms  thinking  that 
the  thrust  had  stabbed  us  both.  When  I  had  re- 
covered somewhat  I  went  into  the  small  room 
wliere  my  sister  was  sleeping.  While  I  was  there 
M.  de  Mixossans,  the  King  my  husband's  first 
gentleman-in-waiting,  and  Armagnac,  his  first 
valet-de-chambre,  sought  me  out  to  beg  me  to 
save  their  lives.  I  knelt  before  the  King  and  the 
queen  my  mother  to  beg  the  favor  from  them  and 
and  at  last  they  granted  it  to  me." 

There  is  a  story,  probably  untrue,  that  Charles, 
almost  crazy  with  excitement  took  his  stand  at  a 
window  of  the  Louvre  and  shot  down  all  the 
Huguenots  he  saw,  shrieking  "Kill!  Kill!" 
For  twenty-four  hours  the  slaughter  continued 
in  Paris,  ruffians  and  unprincipled  men  seizing 
the  opportunity  to  kill  for  plunder  and  to  rid 
themselves  of  their  enemies.  Paris  streets 
literally  ran  blood  and  Paris  buildings  so  echoed 
the  cries  of  the  dying  that  the  king  heard  them 
in  his  own  delirium  of  death. 

When  Queen  Wilhelmina  visited  Paris  in 
June,  1912,  she  placed  a  wreath  at  the  foot  of 
the  statue  of  her  ancestor,  Admiral  Coligny, 
which  stands  at  the  outside  end  of  the  church 


222       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

called  the  Oratory,  now  Protestant,  not  far  from 
the  spot  of  his  assassination. 

Charles  IX's  name  is  not  connected  with  build- 
ings or  improvements  in  Paris,  so  overshadowed 
was  he  by  his  mother.  He  rebuilt  the  Arsenal  at 
the  eastern  end  of  the  city,  and  he  furthered  the 
sale  and  demolition  of  the  great  establishment  of 
the  Hotel  Saint  Paul,  whose  breaking  up  had 
been  begun  by  Francis  I. 

Catherine  had  left  the  Hotel  des  Tournelles 
after  the  death  there  of  her  husband,  Henry  II. 
At  the  Louvre  she  found  herself  sadly  crowded, 
for  she  had  been  obliged  to  give  up  her  royal 
apartments  to  the  young  queen  when  Charles 
married,  and,  counting  her  daughters  and  daugh- 
ter-in-law there  were  four  queens  with  their  ret- 
inues to  be  housed  in  the  old  palace.  Near  the 
church  of  Saint  Eustache  the  dowager-queen 
selected  a  location  to  her  fancy  for  the  building 
of  a  new  palace,  but  the  ground  was  occupied 
by  a  refuge  of  Filles  Penitentes.  With  the  entire 
lack  of  consideration  for  others  peculiar  to  the 
powerful,  Catherine  had  this  establishment  razed 
and  its  inmates  removed  to  an  abbey  on  the  rue 
Saint  Denis.  The  religious  of  the  abbey,  in  their 
turn,  were  sent  to  the  top  of  the  Mont  Sainte 
Genevieve,  where  they  took  possession  of  the  old 
hospital  of  Saint  Jacques-du-Haut-Pas,  whose 
name  still  clings  to  the  parish  and  the  church. 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION 


223 


The  construction  for  which  all  this  moving  gave 
place  was  a  charming  palace  known  as  the  Hotel 
de  Soissons  of  which  nothing  is  left  but  a  graceful 
pillar  from  whose  top  it  is  said  that  Catherine 


Column  at  the  H6tel  de 
Soissons, 

indulged  in  the  harmless  amusement  of  star-gaz- 
ing. The  palace  was  pulled  down  in  1749  to  give 
place  to  the  Corn  Exchange,  and  that,  in  1887, 
to  allow  the  erection  of  the  Bourse  de  Com- 
merce. 

More  ambitious  was  a  southwestern  addition 


224.       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

to  the  Louvre,  a  wing  going  to  meet  the  river,  and 
another  at  right  angles  following  the  stream  west- 
ward. This  extension  parallel  with  the  Seine 
was  begun  v  ith  the  idea  of  continuing  it  to  meet 
the  palace  ol  the  Tuileries  (see  plan  of  Louvre, 
Chapter  XXII)  which  the  queen  had  begun  on 
the  site  of  s  jme  ancient  tile-yards  to  the  west  of 
the  Louvre.  Only  the  central  f  a9ade  was  finished 
in  Catherine's  day,  a  pavilion  containing  a  superb 
staircase  and  crowned  by  a  dome,  connected  by 
two  open  galleries  with  what  was  planned  to  be 
the  buildings  surrounding  the  quadrangle.  The 
workmanship  was  exquisitely  delicate.  Its 
beauty  was  enhanced  by  a  lovely  formal  garden 
laid  out  by  that  Jack-of-all-Trades,  Bernard 
Palissy,  best  known  as  "  the  Potter." 

Of  private  buildings  two  of  the  most  beautiful 
still  remain.  Both  are  in  the  Marais,  which  had 
become  fashionable  at  this  time  on  account  of  its 
proximity  both  to  the  Tournelles  and  the  Louvre. 
One  of  them  is  the  Hotel  Carnavalet  which  now 
houses  the  Historical  Museum  of  Paris,  the 
most  interesting  special  collection  in  the  city  to 
students  of  olden  times.  This  building  was  begun 
in  1544  in  Francis  I's  reign,  by  the  then  president 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris,  who  employed  the 
best  architects  of  the  day,  Lescot  and  Bullant, 
aided  by  Goujon,  the  sculptor,  whose  symbolic 
figures   give   its   name  to   the   "  Court   of   the 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         225 

Seasons."  After  changing  hands  more  than  once 
and  being  restored  in  the  seventeenth  century  by 
another  famous  architect,  Mansart,  the  house  was 
occupied  for  eighteen  years  by  Madame  de 
Sevigne,  the  author  of  the  famous  "  Letters." 
When  it  was  taken  over  by  the  city  it  was  again 
thoroughly  restored,  and  it  now  stands  not  only 
as  a  fine  example  of  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
century  architecture  but  as  a  repository  for  bits 
and  sections  of  old  buildings  from  other  parts  of 
the  cit}^ 

Not  far  away  is  the  Hotel  Lamoignon,  built 
toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  for  one 
of  Henry  II's  daughters.  It  is  used  for  business 
purposes  to-day,  but  its  fa9ade  is  still  imposing 
with  lofty  Corinthian  pilasters  which  rise  from 
the  ground  to  the  roof.  In  the  course  of  its 
vicissitudes  it  was  the  first  home  of  the  city's 
historical  library,  and  in  the  nineteenth  century 
it  was  made  into  apartments,  in  one  of  which 
Alphonse  Daudet,  the  novelist  once  lived. 

Montaigne  speaks  with  frankness  of  the  evil 
smells  of  the  streets  of  this  time,  and  it  is  small 
wonder,  since  animals  were  slaughtered  not  far 
from  the  city  hall,  and  the  offscourings  of  the 
abattoirs  drained  into  the  Seine  emitting  foul 
odors  as  they  went.  Charles  was  moved  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  Greve,  which  was  a 
mud-hole  and  a  dump-heap,  not,  apparently,  be- 


226       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

cause  its  state  made  it  a  disgraceful  entrance 
to  the  city  hall,  but  because  it  inconvenienced 
the  crowds  who  assembled  to  witness  tortures 
and  executions  on  the  square. 

With  Charles  IX  on  the  throne  of  France, 
Catherine  de  Medicis  sought  to  provide  for  her 
youngest  son  by  placing  him  on  the  vacant  throne 
of  Poland.  A  splendid  fete  at  the  Tuileries 
celebrated  his  election,  and  he  set  forth  joyfully 
for  his  new  kingdom.  He  had  lived  in  his 
adopted  country  only  a  few  months  when  the 
news  of  his  brother's  death  reached  him.  The 
French  crown,  was,  naturally,  more  attractive 
than  the  Polish,  and  Henry  planned  immediate 
departure  for  his  fatherland.  He  had  been  long 
enough  in  Poland  to  know  something  of  the 
temper  of  his  subjects  and  he  fled  like  a  criminal 
before  the  pursuit  of  enraged  peasants  armed 
with  scythes  and  flails.  If  they  had  known  him 
better  they  might  not  have  been  so  eager  to  keep 
him. 

The  Parisians  were  not  fond  of  Henry.  He 
made  his  formal  entry  into  the  city  adorned 
with  frills  and  ear-rings,  and  accompanied  by 
sundry  small  pet  animals.  It  was  his  habit  to 
carry  fastened  about  his  neck  a  basket  of  little 
dogs  and  occasionally  he  dug  down  under  them 
to  find  important  papers.  Silly  as  it  sounds  this 
habit  at  least  had  the  merit  of  being  more  humane 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         227 

than  Charles  IX's  custom  of  having  fights  be- 
tween dogs  and  wild  beasts. 

Henry  began  at  once  to  change  for  the  worse 
his  mother's  already  vile  court.  Occasionally  he 
was  stricken  with  remorse  and  made  such  public 
exhibition  of  repentance  as  caused  excessive 
mirth  to  all  beholders  of  the  processions  wherein 
he  and  the  dissolute  young  men,  his  "  minions," 
walked  barefooted  through  the  city.  It  is  related 
that  the  court  pages  were  once  sharply  switched 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Cariatides  in  the  Louvre  for 
having  indulged  in  a  take-off  of  one  of  these 
penitential  exercises  of  their  king's. 

Except  for  the  continuing  of  the  work  on  the 
Louvre,  decorating  the  old  clock  on  the  palace 
on  the  Cite  (see  Chapter  VI)  beginning  the  Pont 
Neuf  across  the  western  tip  of  the  Cite,  and 
establishing  a  few  religious  houses,  Henry  III 
was  too  busy  contending  with  the  Parisians  to 
have  time  or  inclination  to  beautify  the  city. 

The  Parisians  not  only  objected  to  the  con- 
tinual financial  drain  made  upon  them  by  the 
king's  constant  appeals  for  money  for  his 
minions,  but  they  openly  showed  themselves 
favorable  to  the  Duke  of  Guise,  the  leader  of  the 
Catholic  party. 

For  his  own  defense  Henry  brought  into  the 
city  a  band  of  Swiss  soldiers.  To  the  citizens  it 
was  the  final  outrage.    Every  section  of  the  town 


228       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

hummed  with  preparations  for  revolt.  A  rumor 
of  an  attack  upon  the  Temple  made  Henry  send 
a  body  of  troops  there.  For  the  first  time  in 
the  history  of  Paris  the  people  made  use  of  a 
defense  habitual  with  them  two  centuries  later. 
They  erected  across  the  streets  barricades  made 
of  barriqucs  (hogsheads)  filled  with  earth,  took 
shelter  behind  them  and  attacked  the  mercenaries 
so  vigorously  that  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  forced 
to  come  to  their  rescue.  The  day  after  the  Day 
of  Barricades  the  troops  sent  to  the  defense  of 
the  Temple  helped  the  populace  seize  it.  When 
the  governor  of  the  Bastille  went  to  the  palace, 
and,  entering  the  Great  Hall,  summoned  the 
sixty  members  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris  then 
in  session,  to  follow  him,  and  led  them  in  their 
red  and  black  robes  through  the  streets  to  the 
prison  where  they  were  held  for  ransom,  the  citi- 
zens felt  themselves  to  be  in  real  possession  of 
the  town. 

Henry  had  been  warned  of  trouble  on  the  Day 
of  Barricades  by  a  man  who  made  his  way  to  the 
ro3^al  apartments  by  the  staircase  existing  even 
now  in  a  corner  of  the  Hall  of  the  Cariatides. 
Reversing  the  direction  taken  by  the  Empress 
Eugenie  when  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Sedan 
reached  Paris  on  the  fourth  of  September  some 
three  hundred  years  later,  the  king  fled  through 
the  Louvre  westward,  gained  the  stables  of  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  REFORMATION         229 

Tuileries,  mounted  a  horse,  and  fled  once  more, 
though  not  pursued  as  he  had  been  in  Poland. 
The  Parisians  did  not  want  to  keep  him. 

In  an  effort  to  bring  about  better  conditions 
Henry  had  made  concessions  to  the  Huguenots. 
Indignant  at  what  they  considered  as  treachery 
to  his  own  rehgion  the  Catholics  organized  a 
League,  of  which  the  popular  duke  of  Guise  was 
the  head.  The  duke's  power  over  the  people, 
as  he  had  shown  it  when  he  stopped  the  attack 
upon  the  king's  Swiss  guard,  and  his  connection 
with  the  League  brought  about  Guise's  assas- 
sination by  Henry's  order.  The  Parisians  were 
enraged  by  the  loss  of  their  favorite,  shut  the 
gates  against  Henry,  and  prepared  themselves  to 
withstand  a  siege.  Hemy  was  forced  to  join  the 
Protestant  army  of  his  cousin,  Henry  of  Na- 
varre, at  Saint  Cloud,  on  the  Seine  a  few  miles 
below  Paris.  There  the  king  was  assassinated 
by  a  young  Jacobin  novice  sent  out  from  the 
city. 

Thus  Paris  was  responsible  for  the  crown's 
passing  at  this  juncture  to  the  House  of  Bour- 
bon whose  representative,  Henry  of  Navarre, 
who  now  became  Henry  IV,  was  one  of  the  Prot- 
estants to  whom  the  city  was  fiercely  opposed. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


PAEIS    OF    HENRY  IV 


HENRY  IV  (1589-1598),  came  to  the 
throne  after  a  career  of  strife  which  by 
no  means  ended  at  his  accession.  His 
family  were  ardent  Protestants.  Henry  was 
born  in  the  comitry  and  received  an  outdoor 
training  which  made  him  hardy  and  vigorous  in 
wide  contrast  to  the  debauched  youths  who  sat 
upon  the  throne  in  Paris.  The  reUgious  wars 
were  seething  all  through  his  boyhood.  When 
he  was  but  fifteen  his  mother,  Jeanne  d'Albret, 
a  woman  of  exceptional  courage  and  address, 
presented  him  to  the  Protestant  army  and  he 
was  made  general-in-chief ,  with  Admiral  Coligny 
as  his  adviser.  When  he  was  nineteen  he  agreed 
to  the  marriage  ^vith  Marguerite  of  Valois  which 
was  to  reunite  the  contending  parties — or  to 
serve  as  a  bait  to  entice  the  chief  Protestants  of 
the  country  to  Paris,  according  as  one  inter- 
prets Catherine  de  Medicis. 

Breaking  harshly  in  upon  the  wedding  festivi- 
ties the  bell  of  Saint  Germain  I'Auxerrois 
clanged  its  awful  knell,  and  when  the  horror  was 

230 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  231 

over  Protestant  Henry  was  lucky  still  to  be  alive. 
It  behooved  him  to  be  prudent,  and  he  accepted 
Charles  IX's  commanding  invitation  to  stay  in 
Paris.  Here  he  was  under  surveillance,  and  here 
he  learned  the  ways  of  the  most  corrupt  court 
that  France  had  known  up  to  that  time,  immoral, 
deceitful,  treacherous,  the  women  in  every  way 
as  bad  as  the  men. 

During  these  years  Henry  diplomatically  de- 
clared himself  a  convert  to  Catholicism,  but  it 
was  a  change  for  the  moment;  he  had  reverted 
long  before  the  monk's  dagger  made  him  King  by 
slaying  Henry  III. 

This  murder  meant  an  accession  of  hard  work 
for  Henry  of  Navarre  for  the  League  under  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  and  supported  by  Spain  and 
Savoy  was  determined  to  accept  no  Protestant 
as  ruler.  Henry  won  a  brilliant  victory  at 
Arques  and  another  at  Ivry. 

Oh,  how  our  hearts  were  beating,  when  at  the  dawn  of 

day, 
We   saw  the   army  of  the  League  drawn  out  in  long 

array. 
With  all  its  priest-led  citizens  and  all  its  rebel  peers 
And  Appenzell's  stout  infantry,  and  Egmont's  Flemish 

spears. 
There  rode  the  brood  of  false  Lorraine,  the  curses  of 

our  land ; 
And  dark  Mayenne  was  in  the  midst,  a  truncheon  in 

his  hand ; 


232       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

And    as    we   looked    on    them,    we    thought    of    Seine's 

empurpled  flood, 
And  good   Coligny's   hoary  hair   all  dabbled  with  his 

blood ; 
And  we  cried  unto  the  living  God,  who  rules  the  fate 

of  War, 
To  fight  for  his  own  holy  name  and  Henry  of  Navarre. 

Then  the  "  burghers  of  Saint  Genevieve " 
were  indeed  forced  to  "  Keep  watch  and  ward  " 
for  Henry  marched  upon  Paris  without  which 
he  could  not  call  his  crown  his  own.  At  his  ap- 
proach the  peojDle  from  the  suburbs  crowded  into 
the  city  till  it  held  some  200,000.  Henry  had  no 
trouble  in  taking  the  chief  of  the  outer  settle- 
ments and  in  controlling  the  to^vn's  food  supply. 
The  resulting  famine  drove  the  Parisians  to 
straits  such  as  they  had  not  known  since  the  days 
of  Sainte  Genevieve  and  were  not  to  know  again 
until  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  The  usual  meat 
soon  gave  out  and  when  all  the  horses  and  all  the 
mules  were  eaten,  any  stray  dog  or  cat  was  pur- 
sued by  the  populace  and  when  caught,  cooked 
and  devoured  in  the  open  street.  From  dead 
men's  bones  was  made  a  sort  of  pasty  bread,  and 
mothers  knew  the  taste  of  the  flesh  of  their  own 
children  whose  strength  had  not  availed  against 
the  greater  force  of  hunger. 

Touched  by  the  suffering  of  the  city  which  he 
regarded  as  his  own,  Henry  offered  to  let  the  be- 
sieged leave  the  town,  but  so  earnest  was  the 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  233 

League,  so  inspiring  the  preaching  of  the  priests 
that  not  more  than  3000  took  advantage  of  the 
opportunity. 

The  League  was  not  at  peace  with  itself, 
however.  Mayenne  disposed  by  death  of  the 
Leaguers  whose  importance  threatened  his  power 
and  there  was  stirring  that  feeling  in  favor  of 
Henry  which  found  voice  a  little  later  in  the 
"  Satire  Menippee,"  the  essays  which  rallied 
Catholics  to  the  support  of  their  monarch.  The 
papers  were  written  by  a  canon  of  the  Sainte 
Chapelle  and  half  a  dozen  friends  in  the  form 
of  a  burlesque  report  of  a  meeting  of  the  States 
General.  The  following  selection  gives  an  idea 
of  the  spirit  of  unrest  that  was  troubling  Paris 
and  of  the  lack  of  approval  of  Henry  Ill's  as- 
sassination felt  by  the  moderate  party. 

"  O  Paris  who  are  no  longer  Paris  but  a  den 
of  ferocious  beasts,  a  citadel  of  Spaniards,  Wal- 
loons and  Neapolitans,  an  asylum  and  safe  re- 
treat for  robbers,  murderers  and  assassins,  will 
you  never  be  cognizant  of  your  dignity  and  re- 
member who  you  have  been  and  what  you  are; 
will  you  never  heal  yourself  of  this  frenzy  which 
has  engendered  for  you  in  place  of  one  lawful 
and  gracious  King  fifty  saucy  kinglets  and  fifty 
tyrants?  You  are  in  chains,  under  a  Spanish  In- 
quisition a  thousand  times  more  intolerable  and 
harder  to  endure  by  spirits  born  free  and  uncon- 


234       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

strained  as  the  French  are  than  the  cruelest 
deaths  which  the  Spaniards  could  devise.  You 
did  not  tolerate  a  slight  increase  of  taxes  and  of 
offices  and  a  few  new  edicts  which  did  not  con- 
cern you  at  all,  yet  you  endure  that  they  pillage 
houses,  that  they  ransom  you  with  blood,  that 
they  imprison  your  senators,  that  they  drive  out 
and  banish  your  good  citizens  and  counselors: 
that  they  hang  and  massacre  your  principal  mag- 
istrates ;  you  see  it  and  endure  it  but  you  approve 
it  and  praise  it  and  you  would  not  dare  or  know 
how  to  do  otherwise.  You  have  given  little  sup- 
port to  your  King,  good-tempered,  easy,  friendly, 
who  behaved  like  a  fellow-citizen  of  your  town 
which  he  had  enriched  and  embellished  with  hand- 
some buildings,  fortified  with  strong  and  haughty 
ramparts,  honored  with  privileges  and  favorable 
exemptions.  What  say  I?  Given  little  support? 
Far  worse:  you  have  driven  him  from  his  city, 
his  house,  his  very  bed!  Driven  him?  you  have 
pursued  him.  Pursued  him?  You  assassinated 
him,  canonized  the  assassin  and  made  joyful  over 
his  death.  And  now  you  see  how  much  this  death 
profited  you." 

Henry  of  Navarre  became  king  of  Paris  as 
well  as  of  the  rest  of  France  though  it  required 
a  considerable  concession  to  achieve  that  position. 
Still  it  was  not  the  first  time  that  he  had  made  a 
mental  somersault,  so  when  he  found  that  Paris 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  235 

was  stubborn  in  spite  of  more  than  three  years 
and  a  half  of  hunger,  sickness  and  death,  and  that 
his  enemies  outside  of  the  city  were  strong  enough 
to  inflict  upon  him  a  defeat  of  some  moment,  he 
yielded  to  the  urging  of  his  counselors,  admitted 
with  a  shrug  "So  fair  a  city  is  well  worth  a 
mass  "  and  declared  his  willingness  to  turn  Cath- 
olic. After  suitably  prolonged  disputations  with 
theologians  he  declared  himself  convinced  of  the 
error  of  his  belief,  and  on  a  Sunday  in  July,  1593, 
he  appeared  at  Saint  Denis  where  an  imposing 
body  of  prelates  was  arrayed  before  the  great 
door,  and  professed  his  new  faith.  Then  he  was 
allowed  to  enter  the  building  and  to  repeat  his 
profession  before  the  altar. 

Paris  was  not  sorry  to  have  an  excuse  for  sub- 
mitting and  in  the  following  March  when 
Henry's  troops  entered  the  city  in  the  grayness 
of  dawn  one  day  toward  the  end  of  the  month 
there  was  no  opposition.  On  his  way  to  Notre 
Dame  to  hear  mass,  Henry,  resplendent  in  vel- 
vet, gold-embroidered,  mounted  on  a  handsome 
gray  charger  and  constantly  doffing  his  white- 
plumed  helmet,  was  greeted  with  cries  of  "  Long 
live  the  king  "  and  "  Hail  to  peace."  When  the 
Provost  of  the  Merchants  and  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal citizens  the  day  after  his  entry  brought  him 
a  gift  of  sweetmeats,  the  king,  though  not  fully 
dressed,  for  his  subjects'  ardor  had  brought  them 


236       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

at  an  unduly  early  hour,  accepted  the  offering 
graciously,  saying,  "  Yesterday  I  received  your 
hearts ;  to-day  I  receive  your  comfits  no  less  will- 
ingly." 

A  Spanish  troop  had  been  called  in  by  the 
League  to  assist  them  in  holding  the  city  against 
Henry.  He  allowed  them  to  leave  unmolested, 
contenting  himself  with  watching  them  from  a 
window  as  they  passed  through  the  Porte  Saint 
Denis,  and  calling  to  them  with  cheerful  inso- 
lence, "  Gentlemen,  my  regards  to  your  mas- 
ter— and  never  come  back  here!  " 

In  the  calm  that  succeeded  the  nation  be- 
gan a  career  of  prosperity  which  it  had  not  known 
for  two  generations.  With  cheerful  severity 
Henry  caused  a  gallows  to  be  erected  near  the 
Porte  Saint  Antoine  "  Whereon  to  hang  any  per- 
son of  either  religion  who  should  be  found  so 
bold  as  to  attempt  anything  against  the  public 
peace."  He  was  determined  that  every  peasant 
in  the  kingdom  should  have  a  chicken  in  the  pot 
for  his  Sunday  dinner,  and  he  used  intelligent 
methods  of  bringing  about  that  result.  Not  only 
was  he  a  man  of  practical  good  sense  himself,  but 
he  was  able  to  recognize  that  quality  in  others, 
and  he  chose  men  of  prudence  and  intelligence  as 
his  advisers,  chief  of  them  the  Duke  of  Sully. 
He  encouraged  agriculture,  introduced  new  in- 
dustries, permitted  religious  toleration  through 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  237 

the  Edict  of  Nantes,  made  himself  the  friend 
ahke  of  peasant  and  of  noble.  France  throve 
as  she  had  not  had  a  chance  to  do  for  many  a 
decade — and  the  power  of  the  crown  became 
stronger  than  ever. 

Henry's  early  life  had  taught  him  to  be  active, 
and  he  lost  no  time  in  winning  Paris  to  his 
friendship  in  various  ways.  He  did  not  treat  it 
like  an  enemy  but  as  a  returned  prodigal,  and 
the  citizens  lost  none  of  their  old  privileges  while 
they  gained  the  civic  improvements  about  which 
their  new  monarch  busied  himself  promptly.  He 
began  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  with  the  high 
roofed  structures  of  brick  and  stone  combined 
which  showed  that  the  classic  outlines  of  the  Re- 
naissance were  on  the  wane  and  which  prefaced 
the  Italian  forms  of  the  next  reign. 

In  the  place  des  Vosges  of  to-day  may  be  seen 
the  best  extant  examples  of  this  style.  Catherine 
de  Medicis  had  made  Henry  II's  death  at  the 
Hotel  des  Tournelles  an  excuse  to  leave  a  build- 
ing damp  and  malodorous  from  the  ill-drained 
marsh  on  which  it  was  built.  For  a  long  time  it 
housed  only  some  of  Charles  IX's  pet  animals, 
and  then  it  was  torn  down  except  for  a  wing 
where  Henry  IV  installed  some  of  the  silk 
workers  whom  he  introduced  into  France  that 
his  people  might  learn  a  new  industry.  The 
palace  park  was  used  as  a  horse  market,  and 


238       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

finally  all  memory  of  the  past  was  cleared  away 
and  Henry  IV  caused  to  be  laid  out  the  Place 
Royale  now  called  the  Place  des  Vosges.  "  The 
spear-thrust  of  Montgomery,"  said  Victor  Hugo^ 
"  was  the  origin  of  the  Place  Royale." 

The  king  built  at  his  own  expense  several  of 
the  houses  along  the  south  side  and  gave  the  re- 
mainder of  the  land  to  people  who  would  finish 
the  remainder  of  the  quadrangle  in  harmonious 
style.  An  arcade  runs  about  the  whole  square 
whose  north  and  south  entrances  are  under  pa- 
vilions which  break  the  monotony  of  the  archi- 
tecture. The  effect  is  wonderfully  pleasing  even 
to-day  when  most  of  the  houses  show  signs  of  di- 
lapidation and  the  park  which  they  enclose  is 
noisy  with  the  overflow  of  children  from  the  old 
and  crowded  streets  round  about.  In  the  days 
of  its  prime  it  must  have  been  extremely  dig- 
nified and  handsome. 

Many  great  names  are  connected  with  this 
square.  Richelieu  lived  here,  Madame  de  Sevigne 
was  born  here,  and  here  in  the  house  where  Vic- 
tor Hugo  had  an  apartment  is  the  museimi 
where  Paris  has  collected  mementoes  of  the  man 
the  people  loved.  Backing  against  the  southern 
houses  of  the  square  still  stands  the  house  which 
Sully  built  for  himself,  its  once  imposing  fa9ade 
whose    windows    show   signs  of   occupation   by 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  239 

many  small  businesses,  looking  down  upon  a 
disheveled  courtyard. 

Another  step  that  tended  to  beautify  Paris 
was  the  opening  of  the  Place  Dauphine  from  the 
western  end  of  the  palace  of  the  Cite  through 
the  palace  garden  westward.  It  was  surrounded 
by  houses  like  those  on  the  Place  Royale.  Ma- 
dame Roland  lived  in  one  of  them,  situated 
where  the  place  opens  on  the  Pont  Neuf  which 
Henry  finished.  On  it  he  planned  to  place  his 
own  equestrian  statue,  but  that  ornament  under- 
went so  many  misfortunes,  even  to  being  ship- 
wrecked on  its  way  from  Italy  where  it  had  been 
cast,  that  Henry  was  dead  before  it  was  set  in 
place.  It  seems  to  have  been  fated  to  ill-luck, 
for  during  the  Revolution  it  was  melted  down 
and  made  into  cannon,  although  up  to  that  time 
the  people  had  laid  their  petitions  at  its  foot. 
The  existing  statue  replaced  the  old  one  in  1818. 

On  the  northern  part  of  the  Pont  Neuf  Henry 
built  the  famous  "  Samaritaine,"  a  pump  which 
forced  water  to  the  Louvre  and  the  Tuileries, 
was  crowned  by  a  clock  tower  and  a  chime  of 
bells,  and  was  decorated  with  statues  and  carv- 
ing. The  name  is  perpetuated  to-day  in  a  de- 
partment store  on  the  right  bank  and  in  a  pub- 
lic bath  floating  in  the  stream.  On  other  bridges 
there  were  several  of  these  pumps.    One  on  the 


240       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Pont  Notre  Dame  was  destroyed  within  the  re- 
membrance of  people  now  living. 

Berthod,  a  seventeenth-century  writer  of  dog- 
gerel, who  describes  "  La  Ville  de  Paris  "  in 
"  burlesque  verses,"  draws  a  lively  picture  of 
the  activities  of  Henry's  great  esplanade  in 

THE   RASCALITIES  OF  THE  PONT-NEUF 

May  I  be  hung  a  hundred  times — without  a  rope 

If  ever  more  I  go  to  see  you, 

Champion  gathering  of  scamps. 

And  if  ever  I  take  the  trouble 

To  go  and  see  the  Samaritaine, 

The  Pont-Neuf  and  that  great  horse 

Of  bronze  which  never  misbehaves, 

And  is  always  clean  though  never  curried 

(I'll  be  blamed  if  he  isn't  a  merry  companion) 

Touch  him  as  much  as  you  like, 
For  he'll  never  bite  you; 
Never  has  this  parade  horse 
Either  bitten  or  kicked. 

O,  you  Pont-Neuf,  rendezvous  of  charlatans, 

Of  rascals,  of  confederates, 

Pont-Neuf,  customary  field 

For  sellers  of  paints,  both  face  and  wall, 

Resort  of  tooth-pullers. 

Of  old  clo'  men,  booksellers,  pedants, 

Of  singers  of  new  songs. 

Of  lovers'  go-betweens, 

Of  cut-purses,  of  slang  users, 

Of  masters  of  dirty  trades. 

Of  quacks  and  of  nostrum  makers, 


ium\-r 


^y  '^ 


iftU^-i*'' 


THE    SAMARITAINE. 
From  an  old  print. 


STATUE    OF    HENRY    IV    ON    THE    PONT    NEUF. 
Madame  Roland  lived  in  the  house  on  the  right. 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  241 

And  of  spagiric  physicians^ 

Of  clever  jugglers 

And  of  chicken  venders. 

*'  I've  a  splendid  remedy,  monsieur," 

One  of  them  says  to  you  (Heaven  never  helps  me!) 

"  For  what  ails  you. 

Believe  me,  sir,  you  can 

Use  it  without  being  housed. 

Look,  it  smells  of  sweetest  scents, 

Is  compounded  of  lively  drugs, 

And  never  did  Ambroise  Pare 

Make  up  a  like  remedy." 

*'  Here's  a  pretty  song," 

Says  another,  "  for  a  sou." 

"  Hi,   there,  my  cloak,  you   rascal ! 

Stop  thief!     Pickpocket!" 

"  Ah,  by  George,  there  is  the  Samaritaine. 

See  how  it  pours  forth  water, 

And  how  handsome  the  clock  is  I 

Hark,  hark !     How  it  strikes  ! 

Doesn't  it  sound  like  chimes? 

Just  cast  your  eye  on  that  figure  of  a  man  striking  the 

hour 

Zounds,  how  he's  playing  the  hard  worker! 

See,  look,  upon  my  word,  won't  you  remark 

That  he's  as  fresh  as  a  Jew's  harp ! 

Bless  me !  it's  astonishing ! 

He's  striking  the  hour  with  his  nose !  " 

Let's  watch  these  shooters-at-a-mark, 

Who,  to  ornament  their  booth 

Have  four  or  five  great  grotesque  figures 

Standing  on  turn-tables. 

Holding  in  their  hands  an  ink-horn 

Made  of  wood  or  bone  or  ivory, 

A  leaden  comb,  a  mirror 

Decorated  with  yellow  and  black  paper, 


242       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Shoe-horns,  lacing  tags, 

Flexible  knives,  spectacles, 

A  comb-case,  a  sun-dial, 

All  decked  out  with  saffron  yellow ; 

Old  books  of  Hours,  for  use  of  man  or  woman, 

Half  French,  half  Latin; 

Old  satin  roses ; 

A  gun  adorned  with  matches, 

Two  or  three  old  cakes  of  soap, 

A  wooden  tobacco-box, 

A  nut-cracker, 

A  little  group  of  alabaster, 

Its  figures  whitened  with  plaster, 

A  bad  castor  hat 

Adorned  with  an  imitation  gold  cord, 

A  flute,  a  Basque  drum. 

An  old  sleeve,  an  ugly  mask. 

"  Here  you  are,  gentlemen !     Take  a  chance ! 

Two  shots  for  a  farthing," 

Says   this   rascal   in  his   booth 

Dressed  in  antique  costume. 

And  tormenting  passers-by 

About  his  unmarketable  wares. 

"  Six  balls  for  a  sou," 

Says  this  merchant  of  boxes  of  balls ; 

"  Here  you  are,  sir !    Who'll  take  a  shot 

Before  I  shut  up  shop? 

Come  on,  customers,  take  a  chance ; 

Nobody  fails  in  three  shots  !  " 

Two  hospitals  were  built  in  Henry's  reign,  one 
on  the  left  bank,  I'Hopital  de  Charite,  and  the 
other  outside  of  the  city  on  the  northeast,  for  con- 
tagious diseases. 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  243 

Improvement  of  the  quays  was  a  manifold 
benefit  to  the  city. 

A  satirical  prescription  warranted  to  cure  the 
plague,  was  quoted  then  as  it  had  been  for  the 
previous  hundred  years : 

RECIPE  FOR  THE  CURE  OF  THE  EPTDEMIC 

If  you  wish  to  be  cured 
Take — if  you  can  find  them- 


Two  conscientious  Burgundians, 

Two  clean  Germans, 

Two  meek  inhabitants  of  Champagne, 

Two  Englishmen  who  are  not  treacherous, 

Two  men  of  Picardy  who  are  not  rash 

With  two  bold  Lombards, 

And,  to  end,  two  worthies  from  Limousin. 

Bray  them  in  an  oakum  mortar 

And  then  put  in  your  soup. 

If  you  have  made  a  good  hash 

You'll  find  you  never  had  a  better 

Remedy  to  ward  off  the  epidemic. 

But  no  one  will  ever  believe  it. 

Queen  Marguerite  of  Valois,  the  wife  whose 
wedding  festivities  had  precipitated  the  massa- 
cre of  Saint  Bartholomew,  proved  herself  Cath- 
erine de  Medicis'  own  daughter  in  point  of 
morals.  Henry's  were  none  of  the  best  and  they 
were  divorced,  he  to  contemplate  marriage  with 
Gabrielle  d'Estrees  and  after  her  death  to  clinch 
his  Italian  alliance  by  wedding  Marie  de  Medicis, 


244       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

while  Marguerite  entertained  herself  with  nu- 
merous lovers  at  the  Hotel  de  Sens  and  at  a  new 
house  which  she  built  on  the  left  bank,  finding  it 
"  piquant"  to  look  across  to  the  Louvre  where 
her  successor  lived.  In  moments  of  emotion,  con- 
ventionality or  fright  she  founded  several  re- 
ligious houses.  Of  the  Monastery  of  the  Petits- 
Augustins  there  is  a  remnant  left,  the  chapel, 
which  has  been  secularized  and  now  houses  the 
Renaissance  museum  of  the  School  of  Fine  Arts. 
Its  f  a9ade  is,  incongruously  enough,  the  f  a9ade  of 
Diane  de  Poitiers'  chateau  d'Anet,  mentioned 
above. 

Henry's  devotion  to  Gabrielle  d'Estrees,  a 
rarely  beautifid  woman,  made  him  have  her  ini- 
tial carved  in  parts  of  the  Louvre  which  he  built. 
The  letters  are  gone  now  except  in  one  over- 
looked instance,  and  they  were  erased,  it  is  said, 
by  the  order  of  Marie  de  Medicis.  If  this  is  true 
she  seems  to  have  had  more  feeling  about  this 
past  love  affair  of  the  king's  than  about  his 
former  wife,  for  she  is  said  to  have  been  friendly 
with  Marguerite  across  the  river  even  to  the  point 
of  paying  her  debts. 

In  spite  of  Henry's  warlike  career  and  his 
rough-and-ready  manners  he  was  not  without  the 
ability,  which  many  early  kings  cultivated,  to  ex- 
press his  lighter  emotions  in  verse.  To-day  this 
royal  skill  seems  to  have  left  the  monarchs  of 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  245 

Europe  with  the  exception  of  Carmen  Sylva  and 
of  Nichohis  of  Montenegro  who  writes  and  fights 
with  equal  enthusiasm.  Here  is  a  poem  ad- 
dressed to 

CHARMING  GABRIELLE  ^ 

My  charming  Gabrielle ! 

My  heart  is  pierced  with  woe, 
When  glory  sounds  her  knell, 

And  forth  to  war  I  go ; 

Parting,  perchance  our  last ! 

Day,  marked  unblest  to  prove! 
O,  that  my  life  were  past, 

Or  else  my  hapless  love! 

Bright  star  whose  light  I  lose, 

O,  fatal  memory ! 
My  grief  each  thought  renews ! 

We  meet  again  or  die ! 

Parting,  perchance  our  last ! 

Day,  marked  unblest  to  prove ! 
O,  that  my  life  were  past, 

Or  else  my  hapless  love ! 

O,  share  and  bless  the  crown 

By  valor  given  to  me  I 
War  made  the  prize  my  own, 

My  love  awards  it  thee! 

1  Translated  by  Louisa  Stuart  Costello. 


246       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Parting,  perchance  our  last ! 

Day,  marked  unblest  to  prove! 
O,  that  my  life  were  past. 

Or  else  my  hapless  love! 

Let  all  my  trumpets  swell, 

And  every  echo  round 
The  words  of  my  farewell 

Repeat  with  mournful  sound! 

Parting,  perchance  our  last ! 

Day,  marked  unblest  to  prove! 
O,  that  my  life  were  past, 

Or  else  my  hapless  love! 

The  most  ambitious  architectural  work  of 
Henry's  reign  was  the  addition  which  be  made  to 
the  Louvre.  Catherine  de  Medicis  had  begun  a 
wing  extending  from  the  right  angle  of  Francis 
I  and  Henry  II  toward  the  Seine,  and  then  con- 
tinued it  in  a  gallery  parallel  with  the  river,  and 
intended  to  meet  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries. 
Henry  IV  finished  both  and  added  the  story 
which  was  rebuilt  in  Louis  XIV's  reign  after  a 
fire.  It  is  now  called  the  Gallery  of  Apollo  and 
contains  to-day  a  few  of  the  crown  jewels  kept 
when  the  rest  were  sold  twenty-five  years  ago. 
Out  of  this  splendid  hall  opens  the  small  square 
room  in  which  hung  Leonardo's  "  Mona  Lisa  '* 
until  its  unexplained  disappearance  two  years 
ago. 

Popular  as  Henry  was  personally  the  political 


PARIS  OF  HENRY  IV  247 

situation  was  so  embroiled  that  he  had  many  ene- 
mies. Soon  after  his  triumphal  entry  into  Paris 
he  was  unsuccessfully  attacked  by  a  youth  named 
Chastel,  and  it  is  a  testimony  to  the  king's  open- 
ness of  mind  and  tact  that  after  a  few  years  he 
caused  the  demolition  of  the  monument  which 
enthusiasts  raised  to  commemorate  his  escape. 
As  a  further  expression  of  the  people's  horror  at 
Chastel's  act  his  house,  opposite  the  Cour  du 
Mai,  was  razed  and  on  its  site  the  public  execu- 
tioner branded  his  victims. 

A  half  dozen  other  attempts  upon  Henry's 
life  followed,  and  at  last  one  was  successful. 
Driving  in  an  open  carriage  through  a  narrow 
street  (rue  de  la  Ferronerie)  near  the  markets, 
he  was  stabbed  by  one  Ravaillac  who  leaped  upon 
the  wheel  of  the  carriage  as  it  halted  in  a  press 
of  traffic.  A  fortnight  later  the  assassin  was 
tortured  to  death  on  the  Greve.  The  body  of  the 
most  popular  sovereign  that  France  has  ever 
known  lay  in  state  in  the  Hall  of  the  Cariatides, 
that  huge  gallery  of  the  Louvre  which  had  served 
as  a  guardroom  in  the  days  of  Henry  II  and 
Catherine  de  Medicis.  There  could  be  no  better 
testimony  to  the  regard  in  which  the  "  roi  galant " 
was  held  not  only  in  his  own  time  but  later  than 
the  fact  that  during  the  Revolution  his  body 
and  tomb  at  Saint  Denis  were  not  distm'bed. 


CHAPTER  XV 


PAEIS   OF   RICHELIEU 


HENRY  IV'S  death  left  France  with  a 
nine-year-old  king,  Louis  XIII,  1610- 
1643),  whose  Italian  mother,  acting  as 
regent,  had  small  sympathy  with  her  adopted 
land.  Sully  she  soon  dismissed  and  the  court  wit- 
nessed a  greedy  scramble  for  money  and  prefer- 
ment between  imported  favorites  and  French 
nobles.  In  the  brief  period  of  four  years  the 
financial  state  of  the  country  was  such  that  it 
became  necessary  to  summon  the  States  General 
to  see  if  any  way  out  of  the  trouble  might  be 
found.  France's  regeneration  under  Henry  of 
Navarre  had  been  a  growth  too  rapid  to  have 
roots  firm  enough  to  withstand  rough  handling. 
The  Assembly  was  to  accomplish  nothing  for 
it.  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1614  that  the  Estates 
met  in  a  hall  in  the  Hotel  de  Bourbon  just  east 
of  the  Louvre.  The  body  was  a  unit  in  demand- 
ing reform,  but  unity  ceased  with  that  demand. 
The  nobles  were  indignant  at  certain  encroach- 
ments on  their  aristocratic  rights,  the  queen  hav- 
ing given  privileges  to  some  middle-class  profes- 

248 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  249 

sional  people  for  a  financial  consideration.  The 
clergy  were  shocked  at  the  suggestion  that  they 
pay  taxes — an  idea  not  to  be  considered,  they 
said,  for  it  would  be  giving  to  man  what  was 
due  to  God.  The  Third  Estate  had  a  just  griev- 
ance in  the  fact  that  upon  them  fell  all  the  ex- 
penses of  the  government,  and  their  representa- 
tives, speaking  kneeling  as  was  the  dispiriting 
custom,  succeeded  nevertheless  in  giving  some 
caustic  warnings. 

The  only  result  of  all  this  quarreling  was  that 
a  petition  was  sent  to  the  king  asking  him  to  give 
his  attention  to  the  questions  under  discussion. 
The  only  reply  from  the  Louvre  was  the  infor- 
mation that  greeted  the  deputies  when  they  gath- 
ered the  next  day  that  the  queen  wanted  their 
hall  of  meeting  for  a  ball  and  that  the  Assembly 
was  therefore  disbanded.  It  was  a  hundred  and 
seventy-five  years  after  this  brusque  treatment 
before  it  met  again  just  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  Revolution. 

Richelieu,  Paris  born,  Sorbonne  educated, 
and  at  that  time  a  bishop,  was  a  member  of  this 
Assembly  of  1614.  When  he  became  Marie  de 
Medicis'  adviser,  and,  diplomatic  and  inflexible, 
imposed  his  will  upon  the  country,  the  situation 
cleared.  There  was  need  of  high-handed  action 
at  first.  The  minister  had  the  greedy  Prince  of 
Conde  arrested  witliin  the  palace  of  the  Louvre 


250       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

and  sent  to  the  Bastille ;  a  force  was  sent  against 
other  hungry  and  violent  nobles ;  the  king  himself, 
though  then  but  a  lad  of  sixteen,  felt  the  bracing 
atmosphere  of  this  change  and  ordered  the 
arrest — possibly  the  death — of  the  Italian 
Concini,  who,  with  his  wife,  Leonora  Galigai  had 
ruled  the  nation  through  the  queen.  Concini  was 
shot  as  he  was  crossing  the  bridge  across  the  east- 
ern moat  of  the  Louvre,  and  the  king  looked 
on  from  a  window.  Leonora  was  beheaded  and 
burned  as  a  witch  on  the  Greve. 

Richelieu,  become  a  cardinal,  ruled  with  wis- 
dom and  vigor.  He  treated  high  and  low  with 
equal  impartiality,  even  causing  the  execution 
of  some  of  the  greatest  nobles  in  the  land  for  the 
breaking  of  the  law  which  forbade  dueling.  The 
Place  de  Greve  witnessed  the  punishment  for 
the  sport  of  the  Place  Royale.  Legalized  strug- 
gles by  the  Parliament  in  the  palace  on  the  Cite, 
underhand  plots  by  men  very  near  the  throne — 
all  were  met  and  overthrown  by  the  sagacious 
premier,  and  his  every  act  tended  to  confirm  the 
strength  of  the  crown.  He  fought  sturdily 
against  the  Huguenots  and  conquered  them  with 
the  fall  of  La  Rochelle,  a  conquest  which  the 
church  of  Notre  Dame-des-Victoires  was  estab- 
lished to  commemorate,  the  original  building 
serving  as  the  sacristy  of  the  present  edifice.  He 
confirmed  Henry  of  Navarre's  Edict  of  Nantes, 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  251 

however,  giving  to  the  Protestants  religious 
liberty  and  civil  rights.  Abroad  the  cardinal's 
policies  brought  territory  and  prestige  to  the 
crown. 

Louis  lived  but  a  scant  half  year  longer  than 
Richelieu.  The  king's  whole  hfe  was  passed 
under  the  domination  of  a  determined  mother, 
Marie  de  Medicis,  and  a  masterful  prime  min- 
ister. It  would  have  required  a  stronger  per- 
sonality than  his  to  make  itself  felt,  though 
Rubens  has  recorded  in  a  series  of  pictures  now 
in  the  Louvre  the  quarrels  and  reconciliations  of 
the  royal  family.  His  only  interests  were  hawk- 
ing, drilling  soldiers,  and  craftsmanship  in  leather. 
He  was  terribly  bored  most  of  the  time,  ap- 
parently without  any  initiative  toward  remedying 
the  situation.  His  court  reflected  his  own  disposi- 
tion arid  was  incredibly  dull,  though  ordered  in 
etiquette  and  brilliant  in  garb. 

It  is  to  the  regent  and  the  cardinal  and  not  to 
the  king  that  Paris  was  indebted  for  the  many 
embellishments  of  this  reign  and  for  any  impetus 
that  it  gained  toward  the  standards  of  art  and 
literature  which  rose  to  their  climax  in  the  next 
reign. 

Henry  IV  had  made  Paris  so  pleasant  a  place 
to  live  in  that  the  city  was  constantly  growing. 
Rivaling  the  Marais  in  popularity  a  new  section 
became  fashionable,  the  Quarter  Saint  Honore  on 


252       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  northwest  of  the  town.  By  way  of  protecting 
this  rapidly  enlarging  district  Louis  swung  the 
city  wall  so  far  west  as  to  include  the  Tuileries 
gardens.  It  was  in  this  newly  popular  quarter 
that  Richelieu  built  for  himself  the  Palais 
Cardinal  which  he  bequeathed  to  the  king  and 
which  then  took  its  present  name,  the  Palais 
Royal.  He  encountered  difficulties  in  the  con- 
struction of  his  new  home  for  his  ideas  of  what 
he  wanted  did  not  harmonize  with  what  he  could 
have.  The  hotels  of  other  men  were  in  the  way 
and  sometimes  even  the  cardinal's  expressed  de- 
sire was  not  enough  to  make  them  turn  over  their 
property  to  him.  When  they  were  citizens  of 
small  account  he  brought  pressure,  not  always 
honest,  to  bear  upon  them ;  when  they  were  people 
of  importance  he  sometimes  had  to  keep  his 
wishes  in  abeyance.  The  result  was  an  irregular- 
ity of  outline  that  was  not  beautiful.  To  secure 
a  symmetrical  garden  Richelieu  did  from  within 
what  few  of  the  city's  enemies  ever  have  suc- 
ceeded in  doing — he  pierced  the  king's  new  wall. 
After  the  cardinal's  death  the  queen-regent, 
Anne  of  Austria,  moved  into  the  palace,  and  in 
its  garden  Louis  XIV  grew  up,  a  rather  forlorn 
little  figure  so  uncared  for  that  once  he  was 
found  after  dark  asleep  under  a  bush. 

Outside  of  the  city  waU  running  along  the 
river  bank  was  the  Cours  la  Reine  laid  out  by 


THE    ARCHBISHOPS    PALACE. 
Beyond  tlie  liridsii',   llie  old   Hotel  Dieii. 


RICHELIEUS     PALAIS    CARDINAL,     LATER    CALLED     PALAIS     ROYAL. 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  253 

Marie  de  Medicis  as  a  parade  ground  for  the 
satins  and  velvets,  the  flowing  cloaks  and  plumed 
hats  of  her  courtiers.  A  similar  sight  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  gardens  of  the  left  bank  palace  which 
Marie,  disgusted  with  the  gloom  of  the  Louvre 
which  she  could  not  believe  was  really  the  palace 
when  she  first  came  to  Paris,  had  rebuilt  on  the 
site  of  an  old  residence  of  the  dukes  of  Luxem- 
bourg. To-day,  with  that  combination  of  thrift 
and  love  of  beauty  which  characterizes  the 
Frenchman,  the  Senate  occupies  one  part  and 
the  President  of  the  Senate  lives  in  another  sec- 
tion. The  national  museum  of  contemporary 
art  is  housed  in  a  modern  building  adjoining. 
The  garden  is  still  carefully  ordered,  the  only 
renaissance  garden  in  Paris,  and  is  a  fitting 
adjunct  to  the  beautiful  and  varied  Italian  edifice 
which  looks  down  upon  it.  The  grounds  are 
dotted  with  statues  of  eminent  men  and  women, 
most  of  them  portraits.  To  the  east  of  the  palace 
is  an  elaborate  Florentine  fountain  and  basin 
called  the  Fountain  of  the  Medicis. 

It  was  in  Louis'  reign  that  Paris  became  the 
seat  of  an  archbishop  who  used  as  his  episcopal 
residence  the  bishop's  palace  on  the  south  side  of 
Notre  Dame.  Of  a  half-dozen  religious  houses 
founded  or  enlarged  at  this  time  the  best  known 
is  the  Val-de-Grace,  made  prominent  by  its 
gift  from  Louis'  wife,  Anne  of  Austria,  of  a 


254       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

handsome  church,  a  thank-offering  for  the  birth 
of  a  son  after  a  childless  wedded  life  of  twenty- 
three  years.  This  son  ruled  as  Louis  XIV,  the 
"  Grand  Monarque."  The  church  of  the  Val-de- 
Grace  was  dome-crowned  in  the  fashion  set  by 
the  left  bank  monastery  of  the  Carmelites  and 
followed  in  the  construction  of  the  near-by  palace 
of  the  Luxembourg,  of  the  chapel  of  the  Sorbonne 
in  which  is  Richelieu's  tomb,  of  the  Chm-ch  of 
Saint  Paul-Saint  Louis,  in  whose  graveyard 
Rabelais  was  buried,  and,  in  the  next  reign,  of 
the  College  Mazarin  (the  Institute)  and  of  the 
Dome  of  the  Invalides  beneath  which  Napoleon 
sleeps.  The  popularity  of  the  dome  continued 
far  into  the  next  centmy,  for  Sainte  Genevieve's 
church,  now  called  the  Pantheon,  is  topped  in  the 
same  majestic  style. 

Now  was  the  beginning,  too,  of  the  so-called 
"Jesuit"  style,  seen  to-day  in  not  undignified 
form  in  the  fa9ades  of  Saint  Paul- Saint  Louis 
near  the  Place  da  la  Bastille,  Saint  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  left  bank  church  of  fashionable 
weddings.  Saint  Roch  on  the  rue  Saint  Honore, 
from  which  the  crowds  watched  the  daily  passing 
of  the  tumbrils  during  the  Revolution,  Saint 
Gervais,  east  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  which 
cherishes  a  crucifix  from  the  ancient  abbey  of 
Sainte  Genevieve,  and  the  Oratory  also  on  the 
rue  Saint  Honore,  now  a  Protestant  church  and 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  255 

serving  as  a  background  for  a  fine  group  of 
statuary  representing  Admiral  Coligny  between 
Fatherland  and  Religion. 

The  main  feature  of  these  fa9ades  is  the 
superposition  of  columns.  All  three  orders  are 
used  in  Saint  Gervais,  the  simplest,  Doric,  at  the 
bottom,  the  Ionic  above,  and  the  most  florid,  the 
Corinthian  at  the  top.  The  others  employ  but 
two  orders,  always  with  the  more  elaborate  above. 

Decoration  was  of  the  heavy  style  called 
baroque  which  developed  later  into  the  slightly 
more  acceptable  rococo,  so  called  from  its  use 
of  rocks,  shells,  and  foliage  combined  with 
conventional  scrolls.  Louis'  addition  to  the 
Louvre,  however,  of  a  part  of  the  eastern  court- 
yard, reproduced  the  renaissance  decorations 
of  the  constructions  of  Francis  I  and  Henry  II 
to  which  they  were  attached. 

Far  to  the  east  of  the  city  Louis'  physician 
started  a  botanical  garden  which  developed  into 
the  present  huge  Jardin  des  Plantes  with  its  con- 
necting collections  of  animals.  One  of  the  sights 
of  the  garden  is  a  spreading  cedar  tree  which  the 
famous  eighteenth  century  botanist,  Jussieu,  is 
said  to  have  brought  from  the  Andes,  a  tiny 
plant,  slipped  under  the  band  of  his  hat. 

An  important  addition  to  the  Paris  of  Louis 
X Ill's  time  was  the  construction  of  what  is  now 
called  the  lie  Saint  Louis  to  the  east  of  the  Cite. 


256       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

This  island  was  made  by  uniting  two  small 
islands,  one  of  which  had  belonged  to  the  bishop 
and  the  other  to  the  canons  of  the  cathedral. 
With  bustling  Paris  only  the  cast  of  a  stone  away 
on  each  bank  these  two  islets  were  devoted  to 
such  rural  uses  as  the  pasturage  of  cows  and  the 
whitening  of  linen.  One  of  them,  however,  in 
Charles  V's  time,  had  been  the  scene  of  a  strange 
combat  between  a  man  and  a  dog,  the  property  of 
his  enemy  whom  he  was  accused  of  murdering 
from  the  fact  that  the  dog  attacked  him  whenever 
they  met.  Lists  were  enclosed  on  the  then  barren 
island  and  the  king  and  a  great  crowd  of  men 
from  court  and  town  stood  about  to  see  the  out- 
come of  the  *'  ordeal."  The  man  was  allowed  a 
stick ;  the  dog  had  a  barrel  open  at  both  ends  into 
which  he  might  retreat  and  from  which  he  could 
plunge  forth.  When  he  was  loosed  he  rushed 
about  his  enemy,  evading  his  blows,  threatening 
him  now  on  one  side  and  now  on  another  until 
he  was  worn  out,  and  then  flew  at  his  throat  and 
threw  him  down  so  that  he  was  forced  to  make 
confession  of  his  crime  thus  proven  by  the 
"  wager  of  battle." 

Henry  IV  built  a  chapel  which  became  in  the 
eighteenth  century  the  present  church  of  Saint 
Louis-in-the-Island,  whose  delicately  pierced 
spire  shows  glints  of  sky  through  its  openings. 
The  first  union  with  the  main  land  was  by  a 


PALACE    OF    THE     LUXEMBOURG. 


COURT    OF    HONOR    OF     NATIONAL     LIBRARY. 
See  page  272. 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  257 

bridge  to  the  right  bank.  An  engineer  named 
Marie  conceived  the  idea  of  joining  the  two  islets, 
and  now  the  island  is  a  unit  and  only  the  name 
of  a  street  indicates  where  the  Seine  once  flowed 
between. 

Once  begun,  this  new  residence  section  rapidly 
became  popular  among  people  who  wanted  to  live 
somewhat  remote  from  the  turmoil  of  many 
streets.  To-day  the.  island  is  covered  from  tip  to 
tip  with  dwellings  and  such  few  shops  as  are 
needed  to  supply  the  daily  needs  of  the  people, 
but  there  is  still  the  atmosphere  of  remoteness 
that  made  its  charm  for  Gautier  and  Baudelaire 
and  Voltaire,  and  which  induced  Lambert  de 
Thorigny,  president  of  the  Parliament,  to  build 
the  superb  mansion,  still  standing  and  restored  to 
its  original  beauty,  on  whose  decorations  all  the 
best  French  artists  of  the  day  lavished  their  skill. 
To  cross  one  of  the  bridges  on  to  the  island  is  to 
find  one's  self  transported  to  one  of  the  provinces. 
It  is  as  true  to-day  as  when  it  was  written  a 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ago  that  "  the  dweller 
in  the  Marais  is  a  stranger  in  the  Isle." 

Louis  XIII  cared  little  for  letters.  Richelieu, 
on  the  other  hand,  made  some  pretensions  to 
being  a  literary  man  himself,  recognized  ability 
in  others,  and  was  able  to  understand  the  useful- 
ness and  the  power  of  the  pen.  It  was,  in  part, 
his  encouragement  that  made  the  success  of  the 


258       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

literary  meetings  at  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet 
near  the  Louvre  where  the  "  precious  "  ladies  and 
gentlemen  conversed  and  wrote  in  a  language 
whose  high-flown  eloquence  was  a  reaction  against 
the  rough  language  of  the  military  court  of 
Henry  IV.  Corneille  came  to  the  fore  in  Louis' 
reign,  and,  for  his  own  political  purposes, 
Richelieu  organized  a  group  of  writers  who  had 
met  for  their  own  pleasure  into  the  French 
Academy  whose  members,  the  forty  "  Im- 
mortals," assume  to-day  to  be  the  court  of  last 
resort  on  the  literature  and  language  of  France. 

The  two  succeeding  sovereigns,  Louis  XIV 
and  XV  added  other  academies — of  Inscrip- 
tions, Sciences  and  so  on — which,  after  the 
Revolution,  were  combined  as  the  Institute  and 
established  in  the  College  Mazarin  near  whose 
dome  a  tablet  now  marks  the  former  site  of  the 
Tour  de  Nesle. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  when  the  great 
cardinal  died  Paris,  not  being  gifted  with 
prophetic  vision,  drew  a  sigh  of  relief.  His  was 
indeed  a  master  spirit.  Beneath  the  rush  of  the 
city's  life  there  was  no  one  of  whatever  class  who 
did  not  know  that  he  was  neither  too  high  nor 
too  low  to  receive  the  premier's  attention  if  he 
drew  it  upon  himself.  Richelieu's  word  meant 
his  making  or  his  breaking.  If  Richelieu 
stretched  forth  his  hand  he  might  be  raised  to 


PARIS  OF  RICHELIEU  259 

prominence:  if  Richelieu  frowned  he  might  be 
sent  to  a  j^rison  from  which  only  Death  would 
release  him. 

Cardinal  de  Retz,  who  analyzed  Richelieu's 
qualities  with  impartiality  and  intelligence  said 
of  him  "  all  his  vices  were  those  which  can  only 
be  brought  into  use  by  means  of  great  virtues." 
Claude  le  Petit  (1638-1662),  author  of  "La 
Chronique  Scandaleuse  ou  Paris  Ridicule/*  in 
describing  the  Palais  Royal,  wrote: 

Here  dwelt  old  Claws  and  nothing  lacked, 
John  Richelieu  by  name, 
A  dcmi-God  in  local  fame, 
Half-Prince,  half-Pope  in  fact. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PAKIS    OF    THE    "  GRAND    MONAEQUE " 

HISTORY  repeated  itself  when  Louis 
XIII  died,  leaving  as  his  heir  a  child 
of  five,  Louis  XIV  (1643-1715),  whose 
kingdom  was  ruled  by  a  regent,  the  queen 
mother,  Anne  of  Austria,  who  took  as  her 
adviser  another  cardinal,  the  Italian,  Mazarin. 
This  newcomer  to  power  was  a  different  sort  of 
man  from  his  predecessor,  Richelieu.  "  He  pos- 
sessed wit,  insinuation,  gayety  and  good  man- 
ners," says  de  Retz,  but  "  he  carried  the  tricks  of 
the  sharper  into  the  ministry." 

War  with  Spain  brought  success  at  the  begin- 
ning, but  the  Parisians  were  all  too  soon  quarrel- 
ing over  the  finances,  and  in  the  thick  of  a  civil 
war.  The  people  resented  the  arrest  of  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  Broussel,  which  had  been 
accomplished  while  the  general  attention  was 
engaged  by  the  celebration  at  Notre  Dame  and 
in  the  streets  over  the  victory  at  Lens.  De  Retz, 
who  was  at  that  time  archbishop  suffragan  of 
Paris,  went  to  Anne  to  ask  for  Broussel's  re- 
lease. The  queen  laughed  at  him  and  so  roused 
his  wrath  that  he  joined  the  insurgents.    He  did 

260 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  261 

it  whole-heartedly,  for  for  some  time  to  come  he 
fought  in  the  streets — alternately  with  trying  to 
calm  the  people — and  once  was  seen  at  a  sitting 
of  the  Parliament  of  Paris  with  a  dagger  care- 
lessly protruding  from  his  pocket — "  the  arch- 
bishop's breviary,"  some  wit  called  it. 

After  de  Retz's  failure  the  Parliament  sent  a 
delegation  to  the  regent  at  the  Palais  Royal  to 
demand  the  release  of  Broussel.  Anne  refused 
and  the  burghers  tucked  up  their  gowns  and 
clambered  over  the  street  barricades  to  report 
their  failure  to  the  people.  Half  way  across 
town  they  were  met  by  a  mob  who  declined  to 
accept  any  such  decision  as  final,  and  once  more 
the  envoys  turned  about  and  made  their  laborious 
way  back  to  the  regent. 

Anne  finally  yielded  her  prisoner,  but  her 
action  did  not  end  the  struggle,  which  was 
carried  on  for  some  years  and  was  called  the 
Fronde  (sling)  because  the  members  of  Parlia- 
ment behaved  like  the  stone-slinging  youngsters 
of  the  faubourg  Saint  Honore  who  gave  way 
before  the  king's  archers,  but  renewed  their  sport 
as  soon  as  their  backs  were  turned.  The  contest 
seems  to  have  been  rather  absurd,  for  while  the 
personal  courage  of  the  Parisians  was  unques- 
tioned there  was  no  organization,  and  the  troop 
that  rode  gaily  out  to  meet  the  royal  regulars 
was  pretty  sure  to  ride  back  sad  and  bedraggled. 


262       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  little  king  was  taken  to  Saint  Germain 
for  protection  during  this  year-long  commotion, 
and  it  was  not  until  peace  between  the  warring 
parties  had  been  formally  proclaimed  that  he 
returned  to  Paris. 

This  peace  did  not  last  long,  for  the 
bourgeoisie,  some  members  of  the  nobility  and 
even  a  few  princes  of  the  blood  royal  were 
among  the  disaffected  Parisians.  Anne  and 
Mazarin  adopted  high-handed  measures,  but 
they  soon  found  that  imprisoning  men  like  the 
Prince  de  Conde  of  the  Bourbon  family  did  not 
ingratiate  the  com't  with  the  people  or  advance 
its  cause.  Two  years  later  on  a  summer's  day 
Mazarin  took  the  child  king  to  the  top  of  the  hill 
on  which  is  now  the  cemetery  of  Pere  Lachaise 
that  he  might  watch  a  battle  between  his  own 
troops  under  Turenne  and  those  under  Conde 
just  outside  the  city  walls  on  the  east.  Conde's 
force  was  out-numbered  and  it  looked  as  if  he 
were  going  to  be  crushed  between  Turenne's 
army  and  the  wall  when  the  Porte  Saint  Antoine 
was  suddenly  opened  and  the  guns  of  the  Bastille 
were  used  against  Turenne  while  Conde's  army 
gained  this  unexpected  refuge. 

It  turned  out  that  the  king's  cousin,  the 
Duchesse  de  Montpensier,  known  as  "  La  Grande 
Mademoiselle,"  had  taken  upon  herself  to  give 
the  orders  which  defeated  the  royal  troops.    This 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  203 

strong-minded  young  woman  was  the  bachelor 
girl  of  her  time,  and  a  "  character."  What  she 
would  do  next  was  the  constant  guess  and  the 
constant  diversion  of  the  court.  Although  she 
was  eleven  years  older  than  Louis  he  was  so 
captivated  by  her  vivacity  that  the  cardinal 
thought  it  judicious  to  keep  the  cousins  apart,  and 
gave  her  apartments  at  the  Louvre.  At  one  time 
during  the  siege  of  Orleans  she  made  her  way 
across  the  moat  in  a  small  boat  and  squeezed  her 
way  into  the  town  through  a  postern  gate.  At 
love  she  scoffed  and  she  refused  every  offer  of 
marriage  that  was  made  to  her  until  she  was  of 
an  age  ostensibly  of  discretion  when  she  fell 
madly  in  love  with  an  adventurer.  Her  marital 
experiences  imdoubtedly  made  her  return  to  her 
earlier  beliefs  in  the  foolishness  of  love  and  mar- 
riage. 

The  court  retreated  to  Saint  Denis.  The  city 
was  given  over  to  internal  dissension  for  some  of 
the  city  officials  were  accused  of  sympathizing 
with  the  hated  foreign  cardinal  and  his  party, 
and  the  Hotel  de  Ville  became  the  center  of 
violent  scenes,  its  besiegers  men  who  wore  in  their 
hats  a  tuft  of  straw,  the  badge  of  the  Frondeurs. 
It  was  only  when  Anne  consented  to  send 
Mazarin  away  that  the  Fronde  came  to  an  end 
and  once  again  Louis  could  return  to  Paris. 

With  such  youthful  experiences  of  his  chief 
city  it  is  small  wonder  that  Louis  XIV  had  no 


264       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

great  love  for  it  as  a  place  of  residence  and  that 
he  spent  most  of  his  life  at  Versailles.  The  hunt- 
ing lodge  which  Louis  XIII  had  built  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  huge  palace  which  his  son  made 
large  enough  not  only  for  his  family  and  retinue 
but  for  a  large  number  of  the  nobles  whom  it  was 
his  policy  to  gather  about  him  so  that  he  could 
keep  his  eye  on  them.  By  this  means  the  power 
of  the  nobles  was  decreased  on  their  own  estates 
while  their  respect  for  the  king,  on  whose  words 
and  smiles  they  hung,  was  enormously  increased. 
A  lord  was  grateful  for  a  room  at  Versailles  even 
though  it  were  so  far  from  private  as  to  be  used 
as  a  passage-way.  Many  of  the  nobility  paid 
handsomely  for  positions  in  the  royal  kitchens. 
Later  in  the  reign  these  offices  were  held  by 
bourgeois,  for  the  finances  of  this  class  improved 
as  those  of  the  upper  class  lessened  on  account 
of  decreased  revenues  from  their  neglected 
estates.  The  burghers  aped  the  nobles  in  man- 
ners and  in  dress,  and  by  favoring  them,  from 
whom  he  had  nothing  to  fear,  Louis  gained  the 
friendship  of  an  important  body.  He  raised  no 
objection  when  the  citizens  took  nobles  into  busi- 
ness partnership,  for  that  serv^ed  him  both  by 
lowering  ancient  pride  and  by  providing  money 
upon  which  he  could  make  some  demand. 

In  manners,  dress  and  literature  this  reign  was 
increasingly  formal  following  upon  the  example 
of  Louis  who  was  formal  because  he  honestly  be- 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  265 

lieved  himself  godlike  and  insisted  on  formality 
as  appropriate.  His  was  a  grand  manner  and 
his  an  incomparable  selfishness.  His  belief  in  the 
divine  right  of  kings  stretched  until  "  right " 
meant  the  right  to  do  whatever  he  chose  however 
unkind  or  immoral.  Beneath  the  gorgeousness 
of  the  court  was  a  life  of  hypocrisy,  self-seeking, 
and  crime  almost  beyond  belief. 

The  godlike  sovereign  certainly  had  a  more 
than  human  appetite.  It  is  related  that  at  one 
dinner  he  ate: 

Four  plates  of  different  kinds  of  soup 

A  whole  pheasant 

A  partridge 

A  large  plate  of  salad 

Two  large  slices  of  ham 

A  bowl  of  mutton  with  gravy  and  garlic 

A  plate  of  pastry 

Fruit 

Several  hard-boiled  eggs. 

In  theatrical  parlance,  he  was  "  playing  to 
capacity." 

Upon  Mazarin's  death  the  king,  then  twenty- 
three  years  old  and  ignorant  of  independent 
action,  had  made  known  his  intention  of  conduct- 
ing affairs  himself.  For  the  rest  of  his  life  he 
worked  hard  every  day  at  the  affairs  of  the  state, 
comforted  when  things  went  wrong  with  the 
refreshing  thought  that  the  fault  was  not  his  be- 
cause he  had  acted  with  God-given  intelligence. 


266       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  early  part  of  his  career  was  marked  by  such 
advance  in  the  condition  of  the  finances,  the  laws, 
education,  the  army,  and  industrial  achievement 
that,  provided  he  blinded  himself  to  the  fact  that 
in  Colbert,  Vauban  and  Louvois  he  had  excep- 
tionally efficient  administrators,  he  might  well 
think  himself  a  paragon  of  intelligence.  Great 
generals  won  his  battles;  great  writers  praised 
his  power;  great  artists  and  architects  built 
grandly  in  his  honor.  It  is  not  strange  that  he 
thought  himself  what  others  called  him,  the 
"  Grand  Monarque  "  and  the  "  Roi  Soleil." 

Centralization  was  the  basic  policy  of  Louis's 
career.  In  Paris  it  took  the  form  of  substituting 
a  law  court  under  royal  control  for  the  local 
courts  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  and  in  making 
the  municipal  offices  purchasable  from  the 
king.  Municipal  improvements  made  the  city 
pleasanter  to  live  in.  An  effort  was  made — not 
very  successfully  from  the  modern  point  of  view 
— to  keep  the  streets  clean,^  and  at  night  a  lantern 
was  hung  midway  between  cross  streets  and 
burned  until  midnight.  As  the  number  of  lights 
installed  was  but  6,500  and  Paris  at  that  time 
covered  some  four  square  miles  of  territory  it 
may  be  seen  that  the  illumination  was  not  daz- 
zling. It  was  enough,  however,  to  be  of  assistance 
to  Louis'  new  police  force,  and  to  make  visible 
in  the  evening  as  well  as  the  morning  the  two 
gates — of    Saint    Denis    and    Saint    Martin — 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  267 

erected  by  the  admiring  Parisians  to  do  honor  to 
his  early  victories.  The  fire  department  be- 
came a  lay  institution  at  this  time  for,  rather 
cm-iously,  fire  fighting  had  previously  been  the 
work  of  a  religious  house.  The  population  is 
estimated  at  between  eight  and  nine  hundred 
thousand. 

Two  new  squares  of  this  century  were  the  Place 
des  Victoires,  in  front  of  Notre  Dame  des 
Victoires,  and  the  Place  Vendome,  north  of  the 
rue  Saint  Honore.  By  a  city  regulation  no 
change  is  permitted  to-day  of  the  fa9ades  of 
the  buildings  on  these  two  open  places. 

At  the  extreme  eastern  end  of  modern  Paris 
the  Place  de  la  Nation  is  the  former  Place  du 
Trone,  which  received  its  name  when  in  1660 
Louis  sat  upon  a  temporary  throne  beyond  the 
city  wall  to  receive  congratulations  upon  having 
secured  the  Peace  of  the  Pyrenees. 

The  poet  Scarron,  husband  of  rran9oise 
d'Aubigne  who,  after  his  death,  became  the 
governess  of  the  king's  children  by  Madame  de 
Montespan,  and  who  later  was  married  secretly 
to  Louis,  has  left  a  description  of  Paris  in  the 
"  Great  Century."  The  translation  is  by  Walter 
Besant. 

Houses  in  labyrinthine  maze ; 

The  streets  with  mud  bespattered  all; 
Palace  and  prison,  churches,  quays. 

Here  stately  shop,  there  shabby  stall. 


268       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Passengers  black,  red,  gray  and  white, 
The  pursed-up  prude,  the  light  coquette; 
Murder  and  Treason  dark  as  night; 

With  clerks,  their  hands  with  ink-stains  wet; 
A  gold-laced  coat  without  a  sou, 

And  trembling  at  a  bailiff's  sight ; 
A  braggart  shivering  with  fear ; 

Pages  and  lackeys,  thieves  of  night ! 
And  'mid  the  tumult,  noise  and  stink  of  it, 

There's  Paris — pray,  what  do  you  think  of  it? 

An  epitome  of  society  this.  Paris  was  indeed 
full  of  adventurers,  of  criminals  even  among  the 
high-born,  of  gamblers  so  mad  over  games  of 
chance  that  special  laws  had  to  be  passed  driving 
them  out  of  the  city.  There  is  still  standing 
near  the  Hotel  de  Ville  the  Hotel  d'Aubray 
where  lived  the  famous  poisoner,  the  Marquise  de 
Brinvilliers. 

A  glance  at  the  career  of  this  woman  shows  a 
social  condition  amazing  in  its  calm  iniquity. 
The  marquise  herself,  of  seemingly  guileless 
charm,  acquired  from  a  lover  the  destructive  skill 
which  she  utilized  in  removing  from  her  path  her 
relatives  and  any  other  people  who  interfered 
with  her  in  any  way.  Her  trial  is  a  "  celebrated 
case  "  not  only  because  of  her  own  rank  but  be- 
cause other  people  of  note  were  suspected  of  be- 
ing in  collusion  with  her.  Torture  was  abolished 
under  Louis  XIV  but  not  until  after  Madame  de 
Brinvilliers  had  been  made  to  drink  many  buckets 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  269 

of  water  and  to  be  sadly  bent  across  wooden 
horses. 

She  was  beheaded  on  the  Greve,  her  body 
burned  and  the  ashes  thrown  to  the  winds.  At 
about  the  same  time  accident  disclosed  an 
astounding  number  of  cases  of  poisoning  or  at- 
tempted poisoning.  Mme.  de  Montespan  un- 
doubtedly tried  to  make  way  with  the  father  of 
her  children,  the  king,  and  rumors  were  constant 
of  many  other  instances.  "  So  far,"  said  Mme. 
de  Sevigne's  son,  "  I  have  not  been  accused  of 
attempting  to  poison  little  mamma,  and  that  is 
a  distinction  in  these  days." 

Paris  was  lively  enough  during  this  reign,  for 
Versailles  was  not  so  far  away  but  that  its  people 
could  go  to  town  for  city  diversions,  and  as  Louis 
grew  more  serious  with  age  and  court  etiquette 
more  rigorous  and  burdensome,  the  town  made  its 
call  more  and  more  insistently.  Louis  himself, 
hugely  bewigged  and  elaborately  elegant,  how- 
ever, does  not  often  appear  in  the  picture.  Once 
he  took  part  in  a  gorgeous  carrousel — a  carnival 
chiefly  of  equestrian  sports — which  took  place  in 
the  large  square — now  called  the  Place  du 
Carrousel — lying  between  the  Louvre  and  the 
Tuileries.  Once,  twenty-five  years  later,  he  was 
entertained  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at  a  dinner  at 
which  the  city  officials  waited  upon  him  in  person. 
Yet  neither  of  these  pictures  lingers  in  the 
memory   like    that   of   the   bewigged   monarch 


270       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

usually  most  punctilious  in  his  dress  for  occasions, 
appearing  in  the  palace  of  the  Cite  before  the 
Parliament,  booted  for  the  chase,  arrogantly  care- 
less of  any  courtesy  toward  the  body  he  addressed 
and  haughtily  insisting  with  the  full  force  of  his 
sincere  belief  that  he  and  the  State  were  one, — 
"  Umat  c'est  moi." 

Power  was  dear  to  the  king's  heart  and  he  so 
impressed  his  magnificence  on  his  people  that 
they  thought  it  only  fitting  that  he  should  have  a 
rising  sun  carved  on  the  buildings  which  he 
erected,  such  as  that  part  of  the  Louvre  which  he 
built  to  complete  the  eastern  quadrangle.  (See 
plan,  Chapter  XXII).  The  eastern  exterior  of 
this  section,  facing  the  church  of  Saint  Germain 
I'Auxerrois,  shows  the  superb  colonnade  designed 
by  Perrault,  a  sort  of  universal  genius,  who  was 
both  a  physician  and  an  architect.  Another  piece 
of  his  work  was  the  Observatory,  still  in  active 
use  on  the  left  bank  near  the  University.  The 
king's  appreciation  of  splendor  demanded  com- 
pleteness, and  so  his  handsome  buildings  were 
placed  in  the  setting  of  stately  gardens,  his  chief 
designer  being  Le  Notre  whose  work  is  still  to  be 
seen  encircling  the  palaces  in  the  environs  of 
Paris.  In  the  city  he  laid  out  the  gardens  of  the 
Tuileries,  and  that  superb  avenue,  the  Champs 
Elysees,  which  leads  from  the  broad  Place  de  la 
Concorde  to  Napoleon's  Arch  of  Triumph.  The 
four  hundredth  anniversary  of  Le  Notre's  birth 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  "  271 

was  celebrated  on  March  12,  1913,  when  Paris- 
ians recalled  his  work  with  almost  unanimous  ap- 
proval because  of  its  harmony  with  the  impressive 
buildings  which  it  supplemented. 

Other  important  buildings  of  Louis'  reign 
were  the  Invalides  or  Soldiers'  Home  with  its 
church  and  its  later  addition,  the  work  of 
Mansard  who  gave  his  name  to  the  curb-roof 
which  we  know.  Beneath  Mansard's  beautiful 
dome  the  body  of  Napoleon  now  lies  "  among  the 
people  whom  I  loved." 

Louis'  contest  with  the  pope  over  the  king's 
position  as  head  of  the  French  church  tended  to 
lessen  his  interest  in  the  establishment  of  religious 
institutions,  but  the  famous  church  of  Saint 
Sulpice,  whose  twin  towers  are  landmarks  on  the 
left  bank,  was  begun  by  him,  together  with  the 
seminary  whose  square  ugliness  is  soon  to  house 
the  overflow  from  the  near-by  Luxembourg 
museum.  Since  the  quarrel  between  church  and 
state  in  1902-03,  the  building  has  stood  bleakly 
empty  except  when  it  was  used  to  shelter  some 
of  the  refugees  made  homeless  by  the  Seine  floods 
a  few  years  ago. 

The  Abbey-in-the-Woods,  removed  by  Louis 
from  Picardy  to  Paris  and  made  famous  by  the 
residence  there  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century 
of  the  witty  Madame  Recamier,  has  been  until 
very  recently  one  of  the  chief  historic  "  sights  " 


272       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

near  the  celebrated  left  bank  department  store, 
the  Bon  Marche. 

The  Church  of  Saint  Nicholas-du-Chardonnet 
is  interesting  chiefly  because  of  the  tomb  which 
LeBrun,  the  painter,  designed  in  honor  of  his 
mother,  a  sepulcher  opening  at  the  smnmons  of 
a  hovering  angel. 

Among  Louis'  good  works  must  be  counted 
the  union  of  several  hospitals  into  one  known  as 
the  Salpetriere  from  its  occupying  the  site  of  a 
saltpeter  manufactory,  and  devoted  to-day  to  the 
care  of  nervous  diseases  and  insanity. 

The  tapestry  manufactory  of  the  Gobelins 
family  was  received  into  royal  favor  by  Louis 
and  then  as  now  did  its  work  only  for  the  govern- 
ment. Its  products  to-day,  painstakingly  made 
by  skillful  workmen  who  have  given  their  lives 
to  this  task  as  did  their  fathers  before  them,  are 
never  sold,  but  are  used  for  the  decoration  of 
public  buildings  and  as  gifts  for  people  whom  the 
state  wishes  to  honor. 

Of  comparatively  small  houses  belonging  to 
this  century  the  best  remaining  instances  are  the 
Pavilion  of  Hanover,  in  which  is  the  Paris  office 
of  the  New  York  Times;  the  Hotel  Mazarin 
which  now  contains  the  fine  collection  of  books 
known  as  the  National  Library;  the  Hotel  de  la 
Vrilliere,  now  the  Bank  of  France,  with  an 
echauguette  (observation  turret)  by  Mansard; 
the  Hotel  de  Soubise,  used  with  the  Hotel  de 


^I^Sr^"^  ^ijLJx 


HOTEL     DES     INVALIDES. 


SAINT    SULPICE. 
From  a  print  of  about  1820. 


PARIS  OF  THE  "  GRAND  MONARQUE  ''  273 

Clisson  to  house  the  national  archives;  the 
near-by  Hotel  de  Hollande,  once  the  Dutch 
embassy;  and  the  Hotel  Beauvais  from  whose 
balcony  the  queen-mother,  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, Cardinal  Mazarin  and  Turenne  watched 
the  entrance  of  Louis  XIV  and  his  bride,  Maria 
Theresa  of  Spain. 

The  latter  part  of  Louis'  reign  showed  a  con- 
stant decline  in  power  resulting  from  a  decline 
in  common  sense  no  less  than  from  the  loss  of 
able  advisers.  Taxes  brought  the  peasants  to 
poverty,  famine  killed  them  when  disease  did  not. 
Territory  was  lost.  As  a  last  burst  of  stupidity 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  drove  out 
of  the  country  the  best  class  of  artisans  who  took 
their  intelligence  and  skill  to  the  enrichment  of 
other  countries.  The  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  found  France  with  a  selfish  nobil- 
ity, and  a  disordered  bourgeoisie  and  a  peasantry 
in  whose  hearts  was  smoldering  the  fire  of  bitter 
hatred  that  was  to  burst  forth  into  flame  at  the 
Revolution.  During  the  winter  of  1709,  six  years 
before  Louis'  death,  the  cold  was  so  severe  that 
five  thousand  people  died  of  their  sufferings  in 
Paris  alone,  and  the  scarcity  of  food  was  so 
pronounced  that  the  purveyors  of  the  court  had 
difficulty  in  securing  enough  for  the  king  himself 
to  eat. 

So  ended  in  suffering  and  sullenness  the  reign 
of  the  Grand  Monarque. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

PARIS  OF  LOUIS  THE  "  WELL-BELOVED  " 

IT  was  a  pitiful  country  to  which  Louis  XV 
fell  heir  (in  1715)  when  his  great-grand- 
father died.  The  peasants  had  been  taxed 
to  the  last  sou,  the  nobles,  untaxed  and  selfish, 
scrambled  greedily  for  court  preferment  and 
left  their  estates  uncared  for,  many  of  the 
bourgeois  tried  to  emulate  the  nobles  in  ex- 
tavagance,  and  all  of  them  seemed  to  view  with 
apathy  a  government  in  which  the  most  intel- 
ligent part  of  the  community  had  an  extremely 
small  share. 

The  nouveau  riche  has  his  place  in  the  picture. 
It  is  related  of  a  rich  salt  manufacturer,  for  in- 
stance, that  he  was  asked  by  a  friend  to  whom  he 
was  showing  a  fine  villa  that  he  had  just  built, 
why  a  certain  niche  was  left  vacant.  Proud  of 
his  occupation  the  owner  replied  that  he  intended 
to  fill  the  space  with  a  statue  symbolic  of  his 
business.  To  which  the  friend  retorted  with  a 
prompt  suggestion,  "  Lot's  wife." 

At  the  time  of  his  accession  Louis  was  but  five 
years  old,  and  the  regency  was  given  into  the 
hands   of  the   unscrupulous  Duke   of   Orleans. 

274 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "  WELL-BELOVED  "    275 

Both  courtiers  and  Parisians  were  delighted  at 
the  removal  of  the  court  from  Versailles  to  the 
city,  but  the  good  people  of  the  town  soon 
realized  that  the  added  liveliness  was  a  doubtful 
advantage,  for  the  gayeties  of  the  Palais  Royal 
in  which  the  regent  lived  were  gross  debaucheries. 
Even  holy  days  were  not  held  sacred,  and  Orleans 
is  said  to  have  expressed  extravagant  admiration 
for  a  certain  church  dignitary  who  was  reputed 
not  to  have  gone  to  bed  sober  for  forty  years.  To 
such  a  pass  did  the  extravagances  fostered  by  the 
regent  grow  that  even  Louis  the  Well-Beloved, 
himself  the  Prince  of  Extravagance,  was  com- 
pelled later  to  pass  sumptuary  laws  regulating 
dress  and  the  expense  of  entertaimnents. 

There  is  in  the  French  character  to-day  a  cer- 
tain crdulity  as  concerns  "  get-rich-quick " 
schemes  which  renders  the  people  astonishingly 
responsive  to  the  efforts  of  swindlers  like  Ma- 
dame Humbert,  notorious  a  few  years  ago.  It  is 
a  quality  in  curious  contrast  to  the  shrewdness 
which  makes  them  the  readiest  financiers  of  mod- 
ern Europe,  yet  in  a  way  it  supplements  the  thrift 
which  some  students  look  upon  as  a  result  of 
the  bitter  days  of  the  "Old  Regime,"  the  pinch- 
ing period  that  resulted  in  the  Revolution.  It 
would  seem  that  this  characteristic  is  not  a  mod- 
ern phenomenon,  for  at  the  beginning  of  Louis 
XV's  reign  a  Scotsman  named  Law  proposed  a 


276       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

paper  money  scheme  that  was  seized  upon  with 
eagerness  by  all  classes  of  an  impoverished 
society.  Nor  was  it  a  phenomenon  peculiar  to 
France,  for  at  about  the  same  time  the  South  Sea 
Bubble  was  exciting  England  to  a  frenzy  of 
acquisitiveness.  Whatever  the  psychology,  all 
France  and  especially  all  Paris  went  wild  over 
Law's  propositions.  He  issued  small  notes  which 
he  redeemed  in  specie  until  he  won  the  confidence 
of  the  public  and  the  government  endorsed  his 
bank  and  permitted  the  use  of  his  paper  in  pay- 
ment of  taxes.  The  Mississippi  valley  was  sup- 
posed at  that  time  to  abound  in  gold  and  silver 
and  Law's  office  in  the  rue  Quincampoix,  near  the 
Halles  and  the  church  of  Saint  Leu,  was  fairly 
besieged  by  courtiers  and  clergy,  by  tradesmen 
and  ladies  of  the  nobility  eager  to  buy  stock  in  a 
mining  company  which  Law  organized.  West  of 
the  Halles,  near  the  Hotel  de  Soissons,  was  a 
Bourse  des  Valeurs  established  entirely  for 
the  conduct  of  business  connected  with  Law's 
schemes. 

It  is  probable  that  Law  was  self-deceived.  At 
any  rate,  when  the  bubble  burst  he  was  as  hard 
hit  financially  as  any  of  his  victims,  and,  in  addi- 
tion, barely  escaped  with  his  life  from  their  wrath, 
when  they  besieged  his  bank  in  the  Place 
Vendome  and  rushed,  howling  with  rage,  to  the 
Palais  Royal  where  they  thought  he  had  taken 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "WELL-BELOVED"    277 

refuge.  The  government  repudiated  its  debts, 
but  private  individuals  could  not  do  that  and  the 
ruin  was  general.    A  rhyme  of  the  day  says : 

On   Monday  I  bought  share   on   share; 
On  Tuesday  I  was  a  millionaire ; 
On  Wednesday  I  took  a  grand  abode ; 
On  Thursday  in  my  carriage  rode ; 
On  Friday  drove  to  the  Opera-ball ; 
On  Saturday  came  to  the  paupers'  hall. 

Louis  ruled — or  misruled — for  sixty  years.  In 
the  space  of  six  decades  much  may  happen  for 
good  or  ill,  but  this  long  reign  was  marked  by  no 
rises  and  by  few  falls,  merely  by  a  gradual,  con- 
sistent decadence.  The  country  engaged  in  the 
War  of  the  Polish  Succession,  the  War  of  the 
Austrian  Succession,  and  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
and  in  all  lost  territory,  men  and  prestige,  while 
the  effects  of  the  hated  tax  collector  added  to  the 
ever-growing  misery.  The  people  were  too 
crushed  to  do  more  than  look  on  dully  while  their 
sovereign  secured  in  infamous  ways  the  where- 
withal for  his  infamous  pleasures.  He  sold  the 
liberty  of  his  subjects,  for  any  one  who  could  pay 
for  a  warrant  (lettre  de  cachet)  could  put  a 
private  enemy  into  prison  where  he  might  lie 
forgotten  for  years.  He  sold  the  lives  of  his 
people,  for  he  starved  them  to  death  by  scores 
through  the  negotiation  of  a  successful  corner  in 
food  stuffs.    Even  when  he  disbanded  the  parlia- 


278       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ments  (courts)  the  only  bodies  that  were  trying 
to  do  anything,  there  was  small  stir  made  about 
it. 

Louis  encouraged  a  persecution  of  the 
Huguenots,  yet.  Catholic  though  he  was,  he  fa- 
vored the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  against  whom 
the  Jansenists,  also  Catholics,  were  contending. 
Friend  was  pitted  against  friend,  neighbor 
against  neighbor  in  these  fierce  quarrels  based  on 
religious  differences,  always  the  fiercest  quarrels 
that  man  can  know. 

The  persecution  was  often  petty,  always  bitter, 
yet  it  had  its  serious  side  when  Pascal  and  the 
writers  who  gathered  at  Port  Royal  entered  into 
philosophic  discussion.  This  serious  addiction  of 
the  people  was  a  curious  aspect  of  the  men- 
tal and  moral  state  of  the  period.  While 
some  people  were  entering  heart  and  soul 
into  these  argmnents  there  was  at  the  same  time 
an  ample  number  of  readers  who  devoured  with 
gusto  poems,  plays  and  novels  so  coarse  that  to- 
day they  never  would  reach  print.  That  the 
same  people  might  be  interested  in  both  sorts  of 
literature  is  attested  by  the  temper  of  some  of 
the  highest  ecclesiastics  who  not  only  connived 
at  the  king's  immoral  life,  but  furthered  it. 
In  some  temperaments  the  extremes  of  the  age 
produced  an  unbalanced  state.  This  showed  it- 
self at  one  time  throughout  Paris  in  the  behavior 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "  WELL-BELOVED  "    279 

of  the  "  Convulsionaries  of  Saint  Medard,"  who 
hysterically  proclaimed  the  miracles  performed 
at  the  tombs  of  two  priests  buried  in  the  ancient 
churchyard  of  Saint  Medard,  near  the  Gobelins 
factory.  So  wide-spread  and  so  distracting  was 
this  belief  that  the  graveyard  was  closed  to  the 
public.  This  step  caused  a  wit  to  fasten  upon 
the  wall  an  inscription. 

"By  order  of  the  king,  God  is  forbidden  to  perform  miracles 
in  this  place." 

Contemporary  accounts  of  the  execution  of  a 
man  who  had  made  an  attempt  upon  the  life  of 
the  king  shows  a  callousness  to  suffering  that 
would  seem  impossible  if  one  had  not  read  re- 
cently of  the  brutalities  of  the  Balkan  war, 
nearly  three  hundred  years  later.  The  execu- 
tion took  place  as  usual  in  the  Place  de  Greve, 
and  every  window  and  balcony  was  filled  with 
eager  spectators,  many  of  them  elegantly  dressed 
ladies  of  the  court  who  played  cards  to  while 
away  the  moments  of  waiting.  The  poor  wretch 
who  was  to  furnish  amusement  for  this  gay 
throng  was  placed  on  an  elevated  table  where  all 
might  see  him,  and  he  was  gashed  and  torn  and 
twisted  and  burned  and  broken  for  an  hour  be- 
fore the  breath  mercifully  left  his  mangled  body. 

Like  his  great-grandfather,  Louis  preferred 
Versailles  to  Paris,  but  not  for  the  Sun  King's 
reason.     He  had  no  especial  desire  to  keep  his 


280       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

eye  on  his  courtiers,  but  kindred  spirits  he 
gathered  about  him  and  the  favorites  of  Madame 
de  Pompadour  ruled  and  of  Madame  du  Barry 
vulgarized  the  once  decorous  though  far  from  im- 
peccable salons  of  Versailles. 

With  lowered  taste  arcliitecture  Ijecame  rococo 
and  decoration  a  mass  of  wreaths  and  shells  and 
leaves  and  scrolls. 

In  Paris,  meanwhile,  the  Louvre  fell  into  such 
disrepair  that  it  was  habitable  only  by  people 
willing  to  live  in  haphazard  fashion  for  the  sake 
of  a  free  lodging,  while  private  stables  occupied 
much  of  the  ground  floor  and  the  government 
post  horses  stamped  and  kicked  beneath  Per- 
rault's  unfinished  colonnade.  Disgusted  at  this 
eyesore  in  their  once  beautiful  city  the  Parisians 
authorized  the  Provost  of  the  Merchants  to  offer 
to  repair  the  building  at  the  expense  of  the  town. 
Louis,  however,  seems  to  have  thought  that  if  the 
citizens  had  so  much  money  to  spend  it  had  better 
be  on  him,  and  he  refused  the  offer  and  set  about 
devising  new  ways  of  capturing  the  hidden  coin. 

Of  building  there  could  not  be  much  at  a  time 
when  the  monarch  took  no  pride  in  his  own  chief 
city  and  suffered  no  expenditures  except  those 
that  he  saw  no  way  of  diverting  to  his  own  yawn- 
ing purse.  One  of  the  few  constructions  of 
Louis'  date  is  the  Mint,  built  on  one  of  the  left 
bank  quays  on  a  part  of  the  site  once  occupied 


ELYSEE    PALACE,     RESIDENCE    OF     PRESIDENT    OF    FRANCE. 


Iteci  'S-fLr  •■*Op^-  •, .. .  AL  J 


CHAMBER    OF     DEPUTIES     (PALAIS     BOURBON). 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "  WELL-BELOVED  "    281 

by  the  ancient  Hotel  de  Nesle.  It  contains  a 
museum  of  coins  and  medals  as  well  as  the  work- 
shops for  the  making  of  coins. 

Another  of  the  king's  languid  interests  was 
the  Military  School  which  looms  imposingly 
across  the  southeastern  end  of  the  Champ  de 
Mars  as  the  modern  tourist  sits  at  luncheon  on 
the  first '  stage  '  of  the  Eiffel  Tower.  The  Field 
of  JNIars  itself,  now  green  with  lawns  and  bright 
with  flowers,  was  laid  out  as  a  drill  ground  on 
the  very  spot  where  a  battle  with  the  Normans 
took  place  during  the  siege  of  885  a.d.  Its 
great  size  has  frequently  made  it  useful  for  large 
gatherings  of  people,  and  no  fewer  than  four 
World  Exhibitions  have  erected  their  plaster 
cities  upon  its  ample  space. 

Another  open  place  of  impressive  size  was  the 
present  Place  de  la  Concorde,  first  called  the 
Place  Louis  XV.  This  vast  square,  now  the 
center  of  Paris,  was  framed  on  the  side  of  the 
Tuileries  gardens  by  balustrades  designed  by 
Gabriel,  the  architect  of  the  Military  School,  and 
was  planned  as  a  setting  for  that  colossal  statue 
of  the  King  on  which  a  wag  pinned  a  placard 
saying : 

"  He  is  here  as  at  Versailles, 
Without  heart  and  without  entrails." 

The  square  stood  on  the  western  edge  of  the 


282       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

settled  part  of  the  city,  but  not  too  far  away  for 
the  appropriate  erection  of  the  handsome  build- 
ings still  standing  on  the  north  side  restored 
to  their  early  dignity.  One  of  these,  built 
as  a  storehouse  for  state  effects,  is  now 
used  by  the  Ministry  of  Marine.  The  other 
was  a  private  hotel.  Between  the  two  the 
rue  Royale  runs  a  little  way  northward  to  the 
classic  church  of  the  Madeleine,  whose  corner- 
stone Louis  laid  on  the  site  of  a  former  chapel, 
but  whose  construction  was  long  delayed.  Stand- 
ing on  its  broad  steps  to-day  the  eye  follows  the 
vista  of  the  rue  Royale  across  the  square  and  over 
the  river  to  the  Palace  of  Deputies,  begun  as 
the  Palais  Bourbon  in  the  early  part  of  Louis 
XV's  reign. 

It  was  in  the  rue  Royale  that  most  of  the 
deaths  occurred  during  Louis  XVI's  wedding 
festivities,  and  it  was  through  this  street  that  the 
tumbrils  laden  with  victims  for  the  guillotine 
came  from  the  rue  Saint  Honore. 

A  little  way  from  the  place  on  the  west  is  the 
Palace  of  the  Elysee,  which  the  government 
furnishes  as  a  mansion  for  the  President  of  the 
Republic.  It  has  been  rebuilt  and  restored  since 
its  first  condition  as  a  private  house  which  Louis 
XV  bought  and  gave  to  Madame  de  Pompadour. 

Not  being  of  a  markedly  religious  turn  except 
when  he  was  ill,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Louis 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "  WELL-BELOVED  "    283 

promoted  the  construction  of  very  few  churches. 
One  of  them,  Saint  Philippe-du-Roule,  replaced 
a  leper  hospital.  A  few  years  before  the 
Madeleine  was  begun,  a  new  church  of  Sainte 
Genevieve  was  planned  as  a  crown  for  the  Mont 
Sainte  Genevieve.  Great  difficulties  had  to  be 
overcome  in  providing  a  firm  foundation,  for  the 
elevation  was  found  to  be  honeycombed  with  the 
quarries  of  Gallo-Roman  days.  It  was  fifty  years 
after  its  beginning  before  the  adjoining  abbey 
chapel  of  Sainte  Genevieve,  which  the  new  build- 
ing was  to  replace,  was  torn  down,  leaving  the 
fine  dome-crowned  church — now  the  Pantheon — 
to  stand  uncrowded. 

Opposite  the  Pantheon  to  the  west  is  the  Law 
School,  designed  by  the  same  architect,  Soufflot. 

In  public  utilities  Paris  found  herself  some- 
what richer  than  before  Louis'  reign.  The 
postal  service  attained  such  effective  organization 
that  it  made  three  deliveries  a  day  and  was 
housed  in  a  large  and  adequately  equipped  build- 
ino".  It  became  usual  to  number  all  the  houses  as 
had  been  done  for  some  two  hundred  years  on  the 
house-laden  bridges.  The  names  of  streets  were 
cut  on  stone  blocks  and  affixed  to  a  corner  build- 
ing. 

In  spite  of  the  discomfort  of  getting  about  the 
large  city  through  dirty  streets  carriages  had  been 
introduced  but  slowly  into  the  city.    As  late  as 


284       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  sixteenth  century  only  the  king  and  ladies  of 
the  court  used  the  heavy  coaches  which  were 
called  "  chariots."  In  the  next  century  chairs  car- 
ried by  porters  became  fashionable  among  the  ex- 
travagantly dressed  and  bewigged.  A  cab  ser- 
vice, established  midway  through  the  hundred 
years  won  instant  favor,  and  was  greatly  im- 
proved in  Louis  XV's  time,  though  Parisians 
were  condemned  for  many  decades  longer  to 
traverse  the  town  through  streets  unprovided 
with  sidewalks  and  defiantly  dirty. 

It  is  hard  for  the  admirers  of  twentieth  cen- 
tury Paris  cleanliness  to  realize  that  an  English 
traveler,  writing  just  before  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, complains  bitterly  of  the  dirt  and  disorder 
and  danger  of  the  streets  and  compares  them 
most  unfavoraby  with  London  thoroughfares. 

Another  undertaking,  this  time  of  scientific 
interest,  was  the  tracing  of  the  meridian  of  Paris 
from  the  Observatory  of  the  left  bank  across  the 
river  to  Montmartre  on  the  right  of  the  Seine. 
In  the  left  transept  of  the  church  of  Saint 
Sulpice  is  a  section  of  the  line,  and  a  small  obelisk 
on  which  a  ray  of  sunlight  falls  from  the  south 
at  exactly  noon.  At  the  same  moment  the  sun's 
rays  set  off  a  cannon,  placed  where  the  meridian 
crosses  the  garden  of  the  Palais  Royal. 

That  the  fire  service  was  not  astonishingly 
competent  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  disasters 


CHURCH     OF    SAINTE    GENEVIEVE,     NOW    THE    PANTHEON. 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  "  WELL-BELOVED  "    285 

of  this  century.  Twice  serious  fires  destroyed 
large  parts  of  the  Hotel  Dieii,  the  old  general 
hospital.  It  had  become  so  crowded  in  the  Sun 
King's  time  that  six  and  eight  patients  were  put 
into  one  bed.  Nothing  was  done  to  relieve  the 
situation,  however,  until  it  reached  such  a  pass 
that  even  the  careless  Regent  was  aroused  and 
provided  money  for  the  building  of  a  new  wing 
by  taxing  public  amusements.  The  second  con- 
flagration (in  1772)  was  not  extinguished  for 
eleven  days.  Many  sufferers  were  burned  in 
their  beds,  and  hundeds  of  others,  turned  out  into 
the  December  cold,  took  refuge  in  near-by  Notre 
Dame. 

In  the  same  year  with  the  earlier  fire  at  the 
hospital  (1737)  a  two-day  conflagration  started 
by  prisoners  worked  havoc  with  the  palace  of  the 
Cite.  In  1777  another  destroyed  the  front  of  the 
palace.  Another  fire  earlier  in  the  century  had 
its  origin  in  the  efforts  of  a  poor  woman  to  recover 
the  body  of  her  drowned  son  through  the  media- 
tion of  Saint  Nicholas.  To  that  end  she  set  afloat 
in  the  Seine  a  wooden  bowl  containing  a  loaf  of 
bread  and  a  lighted  candle.  The  candle  set  fire 
to  a  barge  of  hay.  Some  one  cut  the  boat  loose 
and  it  was  swept  by  the  current  under  the  Petit 
Pont  which  was  consumed  with  all  its  burden  of 
houses.  The  bridge  was  quickly  replaced,  but 
without  any  buildings  on  it,  a  fashion  followed 


286       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

toward  the  end  of  Louis  XVI's  reign  when  the 
Pont  Neuf  and  the  Pont  Notre  Dame  were 
cleared. 

The  Pont  Neuf  s  broad  expanse  became  at 
once  the  field  for  hucksters  and  mountebanks  of 
all  sorts;  here  strikers  assembled  near  the  statue 
of  Henry  IV;  here,  according  to  an  old  verse- 
maker,  there  was  much  love-making  near  the 
"  Bronze  Horse;  "  and  here  the  enlisting  officers 
plied  their  activities  even  up  to  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  when  army  service  became  com- 
pulsory. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

LOUIS  XV  was  succeeded  in  1774  by  his 
twenty  year  old  grandson,  Louis  XVI,  at 
whose  birth  the  Paris  that  later  was  to  kill 
him  expressed  extravagant  delight  in  countless 
feasts,  balls  and  displays  of  fireworks.  Young  as 
he  was  at  his  accession,  Louis  had  been  married 
for  several  years.  His  wife,  Marie  Antoinette, 
was  but  fourteen  when  she  came  to  Paris  as  a 
bride,  and  an  accident  which  occurred  during  the 
wedding  festivities  seemed  a  mournful  prophecy 
of  the  troubled  days  to  come.  At  the  close  of  a 
fete  in  the  Place  Louis  XV  a  panic  seized  the 
crowd.  It  rushed  headlong  into  the  rue  Royale 
in  such  a  passion  of  terror  that  the  narrow  street 
was  swiftly  filled  with  a  mass  of  people  fighting 
their  way  over  the  bleeding,  dying  bodies  of  those 
who  had  reached  the  exit  first  and  by  chance  had 
fallen. 

Again  the  royal  family  preferred  Versailles  to 
Paris.  In  the  country  the  well-meaning  young 
king  tinkered  with  locks  and  was  generally  dull 
and  uninteresting,  while  the  queen  made  a  charm- 
ingly elaborate  pretence  at  living  the  simple  life, 

287 


288       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

a  la  Watteaii.  Louis  did  his  ineffective  best  to 
straighten  out  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom  but  the 
deluge  which  Louis  XV  had  predicted  was  com- 
ing and  rapidly. 

The  court  often  came  to  town  both  to  give  and 
receive  entertainment,  and  public  festivities  were 
not  infrequent,  for  the  people  had  a  sort  of 
tolerant  affection  for  the  king  and  queen  whose 
gentleness  and  helplessness  were  not  without 
their  appeal.  When  the  dauphin  was  born,  eight 
years  after  the  accession,  the  City  of  Paris  gave 
a  dinner  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville  in  honor  of  the 
event.  The  royal  table  was  laid  with  seventy- 
eight  covers  and  at  it  the  king  and  his  two 
brothers  were  the  only  men,  the  remaining 
seventy-five  being  the  queen,  the  princesses  and 
the  ladies  of  the  court.  As  seems  frequently 
to  have  happened  at  these  large  dinners  at 
the  City  Hall  not  everything  went  smoothly. 
This  time  the  trouble  arose  from  the  com- 
mands of  etiquette.  The  hosts  bent  their  whole 
energies  upon  serving  the  king  promptlj^ 
When  he  had  finished  his  dinner  the  guests  at  the 
other  tables  had  had  nothing  but  butter  and 
radishes,  yet  in  spite  of  their  hunger  they  were 
forced  to  rise  and  leave  when  the  king  rose. 
As  the  preparations  for  the  feast  are  reported 
to  have  been  lavishly  extravagant  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  "  the  left-overs  "  were  given  to  the  poor  who 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  289 

were  pitiably  hungry  most  of  the  time  in  those 
days. 

The  public  works  of  Louis'  reign  were  not 
many.  The  unrest  of  the  people  was  too  evident, 
the  supply  of  money  too  small  for  much  to  be 
accomplished.  To  the  clearing  of  the  bridges 
which  has  been  mentioned  above  was  added  an 
effort  to  bring  light  and  air  into  at  least  one 
crowded  spot  on  the  left  bank  by  tearing  down 
the  ancient  Petit  Chatelet.  A  new  wall  pro- 
tected several  of  the  outlying  suburbs,  and  was 
not  pulled  down  until  1860.  At  each  of  its  gates 
was  a  pavilion,  several  of  which  are  still  standing, 
which  served  as  an  office  for  the  collectors  of  the 
octroi,  a  tax  levied  even  now  upon  all  food 
brought  into  the  city.  As  anything  to  do  with 
taxes  was  obnoxious  to  the  people  this  construc- 
tion has  been  described  as 

"  Le  mur  murant  Paris  rend  Paris  murmur  ant.''* 

which  may  be  inadequately  translated,  "  The  wall 
walling  Paris  makes  Paris  wail." 

The  over-florid  architecture  of  Louis  XVs 
reign  showed  signs  of  betterment  under  the 
younger  Louis  through  the  influence  of  the 
Greek.  The  best  and,  indeed  almost  the  only  re- 
maining examples  are  the  church  of  Saint  Louis 
d'Antin  which  Louis  built  as  a  chapel  for  a 
Capuchin  convent,   and  the   Odeon,   a  theater. 


290       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

This  building  has  a  dignified  f  a9ade,  but  around 
the  remaining  three  sides  runs  an  arcade  filled 
with  open-air  book  shops  whose  widely  varied 
stock  is  more  picturesque  than  appropriately 
placed.  Its  actors  are  the  students  graduated  in 
the  second  rank  from  the  government  school  of 
acting.  Those  of  the  first  grade  make  up  the 
company  of  the  Comedie  Fran9aise  whose  play- 
house stands  in  columned  ugliness  to-day  at- 
tached to  the  corner  of  the  Palais  Royal. 

The  drama  always  has  been  fostered  in  Paris, 
but  up  to  Moliere's  time  no  especial  provision  was 
made  for  the  presentation  of  the  play  from  which 
the  people  derived  so  much  pleasure.  In  early 
times  the  performance  took  place  in  the  street. 
In  the  fifteenth  century  the  clerks  attached  to  the 
court  held  in  the  palace  of  the  Cite  performed 
farces  in  the  great  hall  of  the  palace,  using  Louis 
IX's  huge  marble  table  as  a  stage.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  a  troupe  remodeled  for  its  use 
a  part  of  the  Hotel  of  Burgundy  of  which  a 
fragment  is  left  in  the  Tower  of  John  the  Fear- 
less. In  the  seventeenth  century  a  disused  tennis 
court  in  the  Marais  housed  a  company  of  players. 
Moliere  and  his  actors  occupied  the  hall  of  a  half- 
ruined  residence  opposite  the  eastern  end  of  the 
Louvre  until  it  was  torn  down,  when  they  moved 
to  the  Palais  Royal. 

Street  fairs  were  enormously  popular.     They 


THE    ODEON. 


iiiiinru'NffTfif 


THE     COMEDIE     FRANCAISE     ABOUT    1785. 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  291 

were  often  conducted  by  hospitals  or  religious 
houses.  The  best  known  are  the  Fair  of  Saint 
Germain  and  the  Fair  of  Saint  Laurent,  both  the 
left  and  the  right  banks  being  served  by  these 
two  entertainments.  There  were  side  shows  and 
mountebanks  of  all  kinds,  and  some  old  verses 
say  that  "  as  one  approaches  his  ears  are  as  full 
as  bottles  with  noise.'* 

In  summing  up  the  causes  of  the  Revolution 
soon  to  let  loose  the  pent-up  fury  of  generations 
of  repression,  the  economic  and  social  reasons  are 
easily  seen.  To  English  minds  the  only  wonder  is 
that  the  people  endured  so  long  the  steady  curtail- 
ment of  opportunity  and  that  they  were  so  long 
deluded  by  the  magnificence  of  royalty.  The 
lower  classes  were  taxed  inordinately,  even  on 
necessities.  The  nobility  (of  whom  there  were 
some  two  hundred  thousand  as  against  England's 
five  hundred)  and  the  clergy  were  not  taxed  at 
all,  and  when  the  Minister  of  Finance  suggested 
to  the  assembled  Notables,  whom  Louis  was 
forced  to  summon,  that  they  should  bear  their 
share  of  the  government  support,  they  resented 
the  idea  as  insulting.  Not  only  were  the  taxes 
heavy,  their  collection  was  farmed  out  to  tax- 
gatherers  who  were  permitted  to  take  in  lieu  of 
salary  as  much  more  than  the  original  tax  as  they 
could  squeeze  out  of  their  victims.  And,  as  if 
this  drain,  long  continued  and  ever  increasing, 


292       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

were  not  enough,  Louis  XV  had  collected  ad- 
vance taxes. 

Politically,  the  power  of  the  French  monarch 
was  practically  absolute.  The  nobility  and 
clergy  almost  invariably  supported  him,  voting 
two  to  one  against  the  Third  Estate  in  the  States 
General,  and,  as  this  body  had  not  convened  for 
nearly  two  hundred  years  before  Louis  XVI 
summoned  it,  it  hardly  could  be  regarded  as  a 
check  to  absolutism.  Trial  by  jury  had  fallen 
into  complete  disuse  and  no  man  was  sure  of  his 
personal  liberty  or  of  undisturbed  ownership  of 
his  property,  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  denied 
freedom  of  belief  and  of  speech. 

But  indejjendence  of  belief  and  of  speech  was 
fast  increasing,  and  its  growth  is  an  evidence  of 
the  intellectual  change  which  is  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  Revolution,  less  evident  but  not  less  power- 
ful than  those  which  affected  the  economic,  social 
and  political  status  of  Frenchmen.  Paris  was 
the  center  of  this  intellectual  and  literary  activ- 
ity. In  Paris  lived  or  sojourned  the  men  whose 
advanced  thinking  was  percolating  through  all 
classes  of  society — Voltaire  and  Montesquieu, 
who  pleaded  for  liberty  and  a  constitutional 
government,  and  Rousseau  whose  appeals  for 
individual  freedom  of  politics,  religion  and  speech 
subordinated  to  the  good  of  the  whole,  crystal- 
lized in  the  war  cry  "  Liberty,  Equality  and 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  293 

Fraternity  "  which  has  become  the  watchword  of 
modern  France.  In  Paris,  too,  were  published 
the  famous  philosophical  and  economic  articles 
of  the  Encyclopedia,  often  with  difficulty  in  evad- 
ing the  police,  and  often  interrupted  by  the 
prison  visits  of  its  contributors,  Diderot  being 
sent  to  the  Bastille  immediately  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  the  first  volume. 

Skepticism  permeated  the  upper  classes,  ir- 
religion  the  lower. 

Paris,  indeed,  was  the  very  crater  of  the 
Revolution.  In  the  scholars'  attics  on  the  left 
bank  argument  was  growing  loud  where  only 
whispers  had  been  heard  before;  in  the  crowded 
tenements  of  the  eastern  quarter  aroimd  the 
Saint  Antoine  Gate,  and  especially  amid  the 
fallen  grandeurs  of  the  once  fashionable  Marais 
people  were  talking  now  where  once  they  had 
hardly  dared  to  think.  The  mob  that  was  soon 
to  take  unspeakable  license  in  the  name  of  Lib- 
erty was  watching  for  an  opportunity  to  test  its 
strength. 

It  made  its  first  trial  amid  the  excitements 
of  the  election  to  the  States  General  which 
Louis  was  forced  to  summon  when  the  Notables 
failed  to  suggest  any  solution  of  the  country's 
problems.  It  met  in  the  spring  of  1789,  the  first 
time  in  one  hundred  and  seven-five  years.  Riots 
were  frequent,  prophetic  of  the  struggle  with  the 


294       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

king  which  began  as  soon  as  the  sitting  opened 
at  Versailles.  Louis  closed  the  hall  to  the  as- 
semblage and  they  met  in  the  tennis  court  and 
took  the  famous  oath  by  which  they  bound  them- 
selves not  to  disband  until  they  had  prepared 
a  written  constitution.  They  called  themselves 
the  National  Constituent  Assembly,  the  nobility 
and  clergy  joined  them  at  the  king's  request, 
and  they  voted  thereafter  not  by  classes  but  as 
individuals. 

Some  of  the  Third  Estate  knew  definitely 
what  they  wanted.  A  peasant  declared  that  he 
was  going  to  work  for  the  abolition  of  three 
things — pigeons,  because  they  ate  the  grain; 
rabbits,  because  they  ate  the  sprouting  corn ;  and 
monks,  because  they  ate  the  sheaves. 

Three  weeks  after  the  Oath  of  the  Tennis 
Court,  Desmoulins,  a  young  journalist,  made  an 
inflammatory  speech  in  the  garden  of  the  Palais 
Royal,  declaring  that  the  fact  of  the  king's  sur- 
rounding his  family  with  Swiss  soldiers  was  an 
introduction  of  force  that  made  the  wise  regard 
the  Bastille  as  a  menace  to  the  city. 

The  facts  seem  to  be  that  most  of  the  prisoners 
were  well  cared  for,  so  well  fed  that  Bastille  diet 
was  a  town  joke,  and,  as  a  picture  by  Fragonard 
shows,  might  even  entertain  their  friends. 

On  July  14,  1789,  two  days  after  Desmoulins' 
speech,  the  Parisians  poured  against  the  fortress 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  295 

a  horde  of  citizens  armed  with  weapons  taken 
from  the  Hotel  des  Invahdes.  They  forced  the 
first  drawbridge,  burned  the  governor's  house 
and  easily  compelled  his  surrender,  since  the 
garrison  of  which  the  people  declared  themselves 
in  terror  consisted  only  of  about  eighty  men  who 
were  but  scantily  provided  with  ammunition. 
The  crowd  set  free  the  prisoners,  who  numbered 
but  a  half  dozen  or  so  under  Louis'  mild  rule, 
seized  the  captain  and  hurried  him  to  the  Greve 
where  the}^  struck  off  his  head  and  carried  it 
about  the  city  on  a  pike — the  first  of  such  hideous 
sights  of  which  the  Revolution  was  to  know  an 
appalling  mmiber.  The  destruction  of  the  huge 
mass  of  masonry  was  begun  the  next  day  and 
lasted  through  five  years.  Lafayette  sent  one 
of  the  keys  to  General  Washington. 

So  thoroughly  did  the  Bastille  symbolize  op- 
pression in  the  public  mind  of  France  that  the 
anniversary  of  the  day  of  its  fall  has  been  made 
the  national  holiday. 

One  of  the  schemes  proposed  for  the  decora- 
tion of  the  vacant  square  was  the  erection  of  an 
enormous  elephant  to  be  made  from  guns  taken 
in  battle  by  Napoleon.  A  plaster  model  stood 
in  the  place  for  several  years,  the  same  animal 
which  served  as  a  refuge  for  the  street  urchin, 
Gavroche,  in  Victor  Hugo's  "  Les  Miserables." 
After   1830  the  present  "July   Column"   was 


296       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

erected  to  the  memory  of  the  victims  of  the 
"  Three  Glorious  Days  "  of  the  Revolution  of 
that  year. 

Upon  hearing  of  the  Fall  of  the  Bastille  the 
king  made  concessions  to  the  Assembly  and 
then  went  to  Paris  accompanied  by  a  huge  and 
motley  crowd  armed  with  guns  and  scythes. 
The  mayor  went  through  the  ceremony  of 
presenting  him  with  the  keys  of  the  city  in  token 
of  its  loyalty,  while  at  almost  the  same  time  La- 
fayette was  organizing  the  citizens  into  the 
National  Guard,  who  wore  a  cockade  made  up 
not  only  of  red  and  blue,  the  colors  of  Paris,  but 
of  white,  the  royal  hue. 

The  nobles,  awakened  to  the  danger  of  a  gen- 
eral insurrection,  tried  to  put  a  stop  to  the  riot- 
ing and  incendiarism  that  was  spreading  over 
the  country  by  offering  to  yield  their  privileges. 
This  concession  proved  but  a  sop,  for  the  people's 
hunger  was  now  unappeasable.  Louis  continued 
to  spend  most  of  his  time  at  Versailles  to  the  dis- 
satisfaction of  the  Parisians.  When  they  heard 
of  the  expressions  of  loyalty  uttered  by  the  king's 
body-guard  at  a  banquet  they  voted  that  the  court 
had  no  right  to  feast  while  Paris  was  suffering  for 
bread,  marched  to  Versailles  and  forced  the  king, 
the  queen,  and  the  little  dauphin — the  baker  and 
his  wife  and  the  baker's  boy,  they  called  them — to 
go  back  with  them  to  town.     Marie  Antoinette 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  297 

had  succeeded  in  making  herself  extremely  un- 
popular, both  with  the  nobility  who  objected  to 
her  independence  of  the  laws  of  etiquette  to  which 
they  were  accustomed,  and  with  the  people,  who 
called  her  the  "  Austrian  Wolf,"  and  who  really 
believed  her  to  be  sinister  and  wicked  instead  of  a 
gay  and  affectionate  young  woman,  whose  worst 
fault  was  thoughtlessness.  If  she  had  had  before 
but  small  knowledge  of  the  opinion  in  which  she 
was  held  by  her  subjects  she  discovered  it  dur- 
ing this  ten-mile  drive  when  her  carriage  was  sur- 
rounded by  east-end  roughs  and  disheveled  wo- 
men from  the  Halles  who  had  only  been  deterred 
from  killing  her  as  she  stood  beside  her  husband 
at  Versailles  by  her  display  of  dauntless  courage, 
and  who  crowded  upon  her  now,  yelling  in- 
decencies and  shaking  their  fists  at  the  king  and 
the  uncomprehending  little  prince  and  his  sister. 
This  return  to  Paris  was  called  the  "  Joyous 
Entry." 

Arrived  at  Paris  they  went  to  the  Tuileries  and 
passed  a  sleepless  night  in  the  long-deserted 
palace  which  seems  to  have  been  despoiled  even 
of  its  beds.  There  they  lived  for  many  months, 
willingly  served  only  by  a  few  faithful  guards 
and  daily  insulted  by  people  who  came  to  see  the 
tyrants  and  to  watch  the  "  Wolf's  Cub  "  dig  in 
the  little  fenced  enclosure  which  he  called  his 
garden.      The    king's    brother    and    his    closest 


298       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

friends  fled  from  the  country,  leaving  him  to 
face  his  troubles  alone. 

The  first  anniversary  of  the  fall  of  the  Bastille 
was  celebrated  upon  the  Field  of  Mars  by  a  great 
festival.  Undeterred  by  a  violent  rainstorm  a 
hundred  thousand  people  passed  before  an  Altar 
of  the  Fatherland  erected  in  the  middle,  and 
after  taking  part  in  a  religious  service,  listened 
to  Lafayette,  who  was  the  first  to  swear  to  up- 
hold the  Constitution,  and  to  Louis,  who  de- 
clared :  "  1,  King  of  the  French,  swear  to  use 
the  power  which  the  constitutional  act  of  the 
State  has  delegated  to  me,  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  Constitution  decreed  hy  the  National  As- 
sembly and  accepted  hy  me." 

The  Assembly  confiscated  church  property  and 
gave  to  the  state  the  control  of  the  clergy.  Then 
it  ordered  the  clergy  to  take  an  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution.  Because  this  implied  an 
acknowledgment  that  the  action  of  the  Assembly 
was  justifiable  the  pope  forbade  the  clergy  to 
take  the  oath.  At  first  the  king  vetoed  this  bill, 
called  the  "  Civil  Constitution  of  the  Clergy," 
and  then  he  sanctioned  it.  It  was  this  vacillation 
that  caused  the  distribution  in  Paris  of  the 
cartoon  of  "  King  Janus." 

The  Assembly  worked  hard  in  the  old  riding 
school  near  the  Tuileries,  and  formulated  many 
political  changes  which  did  not  live  and  many 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  299 

civil  improvements  which  were  more  enduring. 
Mirabeau  used  his  strength  for  order ;  but  popular 
clubs,  the  Jacobins  and  Cordeliers,  which  took 
their  names  from  the  old  religious  buildings  in 
which  they  met,  were  constantly  stirring  the 
fiercest  passions  of  the  people,  and  principles 
closely  akin  to  anarchy  were  taught  in  the  press 
of  Danton  and  Desmoulins,  sincere  believers  in 
revolution. 

Despairing  of  achieving  peace  from  within  the 
king  entered  into  a  secret  arrangement  with 
several  other  European  rulers,  by  which  they 
were  to  invade  France  and  subdue  his  subjects 
for  him,  and  in  June,  1791,  he  tried  to  escape 
from  the  country  with  his  family  and  to  join  his 
allies.  They  stole  forth  at  night  from  the 
Tuileries  and  managed  to  leave  the  city,  but  they 
were  recognized  and  sent  back,  making  their  way 
once  more  to  the  palace  through  a  huge  and  sul- 
len crowd.  The  clubs  clamored  for  the  king's  de- 
position and  the  people  rioted  in  the  Field  of 
Mars  against  Lafayette  and  the  mayor  of  Paris, 
who  dispersed  them  at  the  command  of  the  As- 
sembly. 

In  the  autimin  the  Assembly  finished  the 
preparation  of  the  constitution  and  disbanded,  to 
be  succeeded  at  once  by  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly, whose  leaders,  the  Girondins,  were  anti- 
royalists,  but  not  active  republicans.     War  was 


300       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

declared  against  Austria,  but  distrust  and  dis- 
content led  the  French  army  to  reverses  of  which 
the  revolutionary  press  made  the  most. 

It  happened  to  be  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
flight  of  the  royal  family  that  the  Marais  and 
the  Faubourg  Saint  Antoine  again  gave  up  their 
hordes,  who  lashed  themselves  into  fury  as  they 
pushed  their  way  through  the  chamber  where 
the  Assembly  was  sitting,  and  then  surged  on 
to  the  Tuileries.  Without  doubt  their  intention 
was  murder,  but  once  more,  as  when  Marie 
Antoinette  fronted  them  at  Versailles,  they 
stopped  abashed  before  a  calm  which  they  could 
not  understand.  Louis  donned  the  scarlet  lib- 
erty cap  which  they  handed  him,  the  queen 
allowed  a  similar  "  Phrygian  bonnet "  to  be  put 
upon  the  dauphin,  and  the  mob  stood  appeased 
and  even  admiring.  Yet  only  a  few  days  later 
Lafayette,  the  defender  of  the  Assembly,  was 
forced  to  flee  from  the  country.  The  Reign  of 
Terror  had  begun. 

The  threatened  approach  of  the  foreign  enemy 
was  the  signal  for  a  final  attack  upon  the  royal 
family.  Early  on  one  August  morning  the  Nat- 
ional Guard  and  the  Swiss  Guards  massed  them- 
selves about  the  palace  to  withstand  the  assault 
of  the  crowd  whose  ominous  roar  was  heard 
growing  momentarily  louder  as  it  poured  west- 
ward under  the  leadership  of  a  brewer  of  the 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  301 

Faubourg  St.  Antoine.  The  guards  gave  their 
life  valiantly,  but  they  were  hacked  to  pieces  in 
the  struggle  which  Thorwaldsen's  famous  Lion 
commemorates  at  Lucerne.  The  victorious  rab- 
ble set  fire  to  the  palace,  which  was  partly  de- 
stroyed, and  then  rushed  before  the  Assembly, 
demanding  that  it  dissolve  in  favor  of  a  National 
Convention.  In  the  old  riding  school  the  king 
and  queen,  their  children  and  the  king's  sister, 
Madame  Elizabeth,  took  refuge,  staying  crowded 
into  a  small  room  while  the  Assembly  discussed 
the  question  of  what  should  be  done  with  them. 
After  three  days  and  nights  of  extreme  discom- 
fort they  were  removed  to  the  tower  of  the  an- 
cient Temple.^ 

Paris  was  the  very  heart  of  the  Terror.  The 
rabble  had  learned  its  power  and  unscrupulous 
leaders  permitted  brutality  and  urged  violence. 
A  casual  word  was  enough  to  cause  anybody, 
man,  woman  or  child,  to  be  arrested  as  a  suspect 
and  thrown  into  prison.  If  he  did  not  die  there, 
forgotten,  he  came  out  only  to  be  taken  before 
a  so-called  tribunal  which  listened  to  false 
charges,  practically  allowed  no  denial  or  protest, 
declared  its  victims,  in  detachments,  guilty  of 
"  conspiring  against  the  Republic  "  and  sent  them 
straightway  to  the   guillotine. 

» See  Chapter  VII. 


302       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

This  instrument  was  invented  by  a  physician, 
Dr.  Guillotin,  to  provide  a  humane  method  of 
capital  punishment.  Its  victims  would  feel  no 
pain  he  said ;  only  a  refreshing  coolness !  It  was 
set  up  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  In  the  Place 
Louis  XV,  then  called  the  Place  de  la  Revolu- 
tion, the  scaffold  was  erected  near  the  statue  of 
Liberty  to  which  Mme.  Roland  addressed  her 
famous  exclamation:  "  O  Liberty,  what  crimes 
are  committed  in  thy  name!  "  Around  it  gath- 
ered a  daily  crowd,  some,  the  industriously  knit- 
ting women  described  in  "  A  Tale  of  Two  Cit- 
ies," who  came  as  to  a  vaudeville  performance; 
some,  fanatics,  equally  joyous  over  the  downfall 
of  hated  aristocrats  or  of  plebeian  "  enemies  of 
the  Republic,"  others,  monsters  who  rejoiced  in 
blood,  no  matter  whose.  Pitiful,  indeed,  were 
those  who  came  day  after  day  to  watch  the  tum- 
brils approaching  from  the  east  through  the  rue 
Royale  from  the  rue  Saint  Honore  for  some 
friend  whose  appearance  here  might  solve  the 
mystery  of  an  unexplained  disappearance.  In  a 
little  over  two  years  two  thousand  and  eight  hun- 
dred people  lost  their  heads  in  this  place;  one 
thousand  three  hundred  were  slain  in  six  weeks  in 
the  Square  of  the  Throne;  scores  more  suffered 
in  the  small  square  where  the  Sun  King  had  held 
his  Carrousel,  and  yet  others  in  the  Greve  be- 
fore the  City  Hall. 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  303 

Even  such  slight  semblance  of  the  forms  of 
justice  as  preceded  the  ride  to  the  guillotine  was 
denied  to  hundreds  of  people,  many  of  them  in- 
nocent of  any  fault.  Almost  a  thousand  of  such 
victims  were  massacred  in  the  early  days  of 
September  following  the  incarceration  of  the 
royal  family.  Bands  of  authorized  assassins  held 
pretended  court  in  the  prisons  and  butchered  the 
helpless  prisoners.  At  the  Abbaye,  the  old 
prison  of  the  monastery  of  Saint  Germain-des- 
Pres,  the  unfortunates  were  killed  in  the  square 
before  the  church.  It  was  in  this  prison  that 
Mme.  Roland  wrote  the  "  Memoirs  "  that  give 
us  one  of  the  most  vivid  contemporary  pictm-es 
that  we  have  of  these  awful  days.  Here,  too, 
Charlotte  Corday  spent  the  days  between  her 
murder  of  Marat  and  her  passage  to  the  guil- 
lotine. 

If  there  is  one  more  moving  spot  than  another 
in  the  Paris  of  to-day  it  is  the  Carmelite  Convent 
near  the  Palace  of  the  Luxembourg.  Behind  the 
old  monastic  buildings,  almost  deserted  now,  lies 
one  of  those  unexpected  gardens  which  make 
Paris  wonderful  in  surprises.  Surrounding 
houses  shut  out  the  roar  from  the  stone-paved 
street.  In  a  central  pool  a  lone  duckling,  surviv- 
ing from  Easter  Day,  swims  briskly  as  playful 
goldfish  nip  the  webs  of  his  busy  feet.  It  is  all 
as  peaceful  and  as  remote  from  scenes  of  either 


304s       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

pain  or  joy  as  a  chateau  garden  in  the  provinces. 
Yet  here  at  the  garden  entrance  of  the  building 
one  hundred  and  twenty  parish  priests  were 
hacked  down  in  cold  blood  at  the  command  of  a 
coward  who  urged  on  his  ruffians  through  a 
grated  window.  The  stains  are  still  red  in  a  tiny 
room  above  where  the  swords  of  some  of  the 
assassins  dripped  blood  againt  the  plastered  wall, 
and  down  in  the  crypt  are  piled  the  skulls  of  the 
slaughtered,  here  crushed  by  a  heavy  blow,  there 
pierced  by  a  bayonet  thrust  or  a  pistol  bullet. 

During  this  time  when  the  mutual  suspicion  of 
the  moderate  Girondists  on  the  one  hand  and 
of  the  radical  group,  Robespierre,  Marat  and 
Danton  and  their  friends,  on  the  other,  brought 
about  the  arrest  of  no  fewer  than  three  hundred 
thousand  suspects,  all  sorts  of  places  were  pressed 
into  service  as  prisons,  even  buildings  so  unsuit- 
able as  the  College  of  the  Four  Nations  (the 
Institute)  and  the  Palace  of  the  Luxembourg. 
In  the  latter  was  detained  Josephine,  who  was 
afterwards  to  marry  Napoleon. 

Five  months  after  his  capture  the  king  was 
tried  by  the  Convention,  which  had  succeeded  the 
Legislature  and  had  formally  declared  the  Re- 
public, and  twenty-four  hours  after  his  convic- 
tion "  Citizen  Capet  "  was  beheaded  on  the  same 
charge  that  had  brought  thousands  of  his  subjects 
to  the  scaffold,  that  of  having  "  conspired  against 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  305 

the  Republic."  He  died  bravely,  his  last  words 
silenced  by  an  intentional  ruffle  of  drums. 

The  queen  was  removed  from  the  Temple  to 
the  Conciergerie  where  she  was  kept  in  close  con- 
finement, never  without  guards  in  her  room,  until 
she  went  through  a  form  of  trial  which  sent  her  to 
execution  in  the  October  after  Louis'  death. 
Her  courage,  so  often  tested,  was  superb,  and  her 
composure  failed  her  only  when  a  woman  stand- 
ing on  the  steps  of  Saint  Roch  to  watch  the 
tumbrils  pass,  spat  upon  her.  Mme.  Elizabeth 
was  guillotined  a  few  days  later.  The  dauphin 
probably  died  in  the  Temple  of  ill-treatment, 
though  tales  persisted  of  an  escape  to  the  prov- 
inces and  even  to  America.  The  little-  princess 
was  the  only  member  of  the  pathetic  group  to 
live  through  this  time  of  horror.  She  married  the 
duke  of  Angouleme. 

Internal  dissensions  grew  sharper.  The  ex- 
tremists made  use  of  the  lawless  Paris  rabble 
against  the  more  moderate  element  and  a  number 
of  prominent  Girondists  were  seized  and  plunged 
into  the  Conciergerie  only  to  leave  it  to  march 
singing  to  the  guillotine.  Marat's  death  by  the 
knife  of  Charlotte  Corday  could  not  stay  the 
turmoil. 

There  were  grades  of  radicalism  even  among 
the  extremists.  The  most  advanced  struck  at  the 
very  basis  of  social  agreement.    Religion  they  de- 


306       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

clared  out  of  date  and  substituted  the  worship  of 
Reason.  The  Goddess  of  Reason,  a  dancer,  they 
installed  with  her  satellites  in  the  most  sacred 
part  of  Notre  Dame,  Saint  Eustache  became 
the  Temple  of  Agriculture,  Saint  Gervais  the 
Temple  of  Youth,  Saint  Etienne-du-Mont  the 
Temple  of  Filial  Piety,  Saint  Sulpice  the  Temple 
of  Victory.  Other  sacred  buildings  were  put 
to  more  practical  uses — the  Convent  of  the 
Cordeliers  became  a  medical  school,  the  Val-de- 
Grace  a  military  hospital.  Saint  Severin  a  store- 
house for  powder  and  saltpeter,  Saint  Jidien, 
a  storehouse  for  forage,  the  Sainte  Chapelle  a 
storehouse  for  flour. 

The  observation  of  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest 
was  abolished,  and  men  and  animals  died  of 
fatigue.  Many  churches  were  closed,  for  "  We 
want  no  other  worship  than  Liberty,  Equality 
and  Fraternity,"  cried  the  radicals. 

Robespierre  of  a  sudden  took  a  stand  against 
such  a  display  of  irreligion,  probably  that  he 
might  have  yet  another  accusation  to  bring 
against  his  enemies.  To  replace  the  Cult  of 
Reason  he  established  with  grotesque  rites  a 
Worship  of  the  Divine  Being,  acting  himself  as 
the  high  priest.  The  ceremony  took  place  in  the 
Tuileries  Garden  where  there  is  still  standing 
the  stone  semicircle  built  for  the  occasion. 
Robespierre  was  adorned  with  a  blue  velvet  coat. 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  307 

a  white  waistcoat,  yellow  breeches  and  top  boots 
and  he  carried  a  symbolic  bouquet  of  flowers  and 
ears  of  wheat.  After  he  had  made  a  speech  there 
were  games  and  the  burning  of  effigies  of 
Atheism,  Selfishness  and  Vice. 

Destruction  and  change  reigned.  Churches 
were  mutilated  if  the  statue  of  some  ancient  saint 
wore  a  crown ;  the  relics  of  Sainte  Genevieve  were 
burned  on  the  Greve;  the  Academies  were  sup- 
pressed; no  street  might  be  named  after  a  saint; 
no  aristocrat  might  keep  the  de  of  his  name. 

The  very  calendar  was  altered,  the  new  year 
beginning  on  September  22,  1792,  which  was  the 
first  day  of  the  Year  I  of  the  Republic. 

The  division  of  the  year  into  twelve  months 
was  unaltered,  but  instead  of  weeks  each  month 
was  divided  into  three  decades  of  ten  days  each. 
This  necessitated  the  addition  at  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  month  of  five  extra  days  so  that  the  new 
calendar  might  agree  with  that  used  by  other 
peoples.  These  days  were  called  by  the  absurd 
name,  Sansculottides.  The  months  were  given 
names  made  appropriate  by  the  season  or  the 
customary  weather.     They  were: 

October,   Vendemiaire,  "  Vintage  month  " 
November,  Brumaire,  "  Fog  month  " 
December,  Frimaire,  "  Hoar-frost  month  '* 
January,  Nivose,  "  Snow  month  " 


308       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

February,  Pluviose,  "  Rain  month  " 
March,  Ventose,  "  Wind  month  " 
April,  Germinal,  "  Sprout  month  " 
May,  Floreal,  "  Flower  month  " 
June,  Prairial,  "  Meadow  month  " 
July,  Messidor,  "  Harvest  month  " 
August,  Thermidor,  "  Heat  month  " 
September,  Fructidor,  "  Fruit  month." 

On  the  other  hand  some  excellent  constructive 
work  was  accomplished  by  the  foundation  of 
several  schools  and  libraries,  of  several  museums, 
among  them  the  Louvre,  and  of  the  Conservatoire 
des  Arts  et  Metiers,  established  in  the  ancient 
priory  of  Saint  Martin-des-Champs.  Thanks 
to  the  good  sense  of  a  private  individual  many 
architectural  relics  of  priceless  value  were  saved 
from  destruction  and  converted  into  a  museum 
in  what  is  now  the  Palais  des  Beaux  Arts.  After 
the  Revolution  most  of  them  were  restored 
whence  they  had  come. 

It  has  been  computed  that  the  Revolution  cost 
France  1,002,351  lives.  To  make  up  these 
figures  Robespierre  was  now  killing  two  hundred 
people  a  week.  At  last,  when  he  tried  to  establish 
his  own  position  with  some  show  of  legality  the 
end  of  the  Terror  was  in  sight.  For  the  moment, 
however,  it  seemed  as  if  there  were  only  increased 
horror,    for   the    Parisians   took    possession    of 


PARIS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  309 

Robespierre  and  fought  fiercely  in  his  defence 
against  the  supporters  of  the  Convention.  It  was 
the  Greve,  the  theater  of  many  wild  scenes,  which 
furnished  the  battleground.  Robespierre  and  the 
mob  were  defeated  and  when  Robespierre  went  to 
the  guillotine,  with  his  face,  which  has  been  de- 
scribed as  looking  like  a  "  cat  that  had  lapped 
vinegar,"  bound  up  because  of  a  wound,  then  the 
Terror  died  with  him.  Thousands  of  suspects 
were  released  at  once  from  prison,  and  the  city, 
except  for  the  vicious  element  whose  worst  spirit 
he  incarnated,  breathed  freely  once  again. 

So  strong  was  the  reaction  that  the  royalists 
hoped  for  a  return  of  power,  and  even  marched 
against  the  Tuileries  where  the  Convention  was 
sitting.  They  were  hotly  received,  however,  by 
the  troops  of  the  Convention,  one  of  whose 
officers,  Bonaparte,  killed  royalist  pretenses  now 
only  to  revive  imperial  aspirations  later  on. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON 


NAPOLEON  was  a  very  young  and  un- 
sophisticated Corsican  when,  in  October, 
179.5,  he  commanded  the  troops  that  pro- 
tected the  Convention,  in  session  in  the  Tuileries, 
against  the  Paris  "  sections  "  and  the  National 
Guard  which  had  deserted  to  the  royalists.  He 
was  still  young,  but  a  man  rotten  with  ambition 
when,  after  Waterloo,  he  fled  to  Paris,  and,  in 
the  Palace  of  the  Elysee,  signed  his  abdication  of 
the  throne  of  his  adopted  country.  In  the  twenty 
years  intervening  he  had  raised  himself  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  army,  and  he  had  won  the 
confidence  of  an  unsettled  people  so  that  they 
turned  to  him  for  governmental  guidance,  and 
made  him  consul  for  ten  years,  then  consul  for 
life  and  then  emperor. 

In  the  two  decades  he  had  done  great  harm, 
for,  abroad,  he  had  embroiled  in  war  every 
country  of  Europe,  and  at  home  he  had  exhausted 
France  of  her  young  men  and  had  left  the 
country  poorer  in  territory  than  when  he  was  first 
made  consul.  Nevertheless,  by  the  inevitable 
though   sometimes   inscrutable   law   of   balance, 

310 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  311 

the  evil  he  had  wrought  was  not  without  its  com- 
pensating good.  The  countries  of  Europe 
learned  as  never  before  the  meaning  of  the  feel- 
ing of  nationality  and  of  the  value  of  coopera- 
tion, while  France — which,  with  her  depend- 
encies. Napoleon,  at  the  height  of  his  career,  had 
spread  over  three-fifths  of  the  map  of  western 
Europe — had  gained  self-confidence  and  stability 
and  had  crystallized  the  passionate  chaos  of  the 
Revolutionary  belief  in  the  rights  of  man. 

Aside  from  his  military  and  political  genius 
Napoleon's  character  underwent  a  striking  de- 
velopment as  his  horizon  enlarged.  He  belonged 
to  a  good  but  unimportant  family  which  dwelt 
in  a  small  town.  His  early  manner  of  living  was 
of  the  simplest,  yet  he  grew  to  a  love  of  splendor 
and  to  a  knowledge  of  its  usefulness  in  impressing 
the  populace  and  in  buying  their  approbation. 

Paris  is  connected  with  Napoleon  throughout 
his  whole  career.  He  first  appears  when  but  a 
lad,  brought  to  the  Military  School  with  several 
other  boys  by  a  priest.  He  lived  in  modest  lodg- 
ings, at  one  time  near  the  markets,  and  at  another 
near  the  Place  des  Victoires. 

In  1795  the  Convention  drew  up  a  new  con- 
stitution by  which  the  government  was  vested  in  a 
Directory  of  five  members.  Even  in  its  early 
days  Napoleon  wi-ote  from  Paris  to  his  brother 
of  the  change  following  upon  the  turbulent, 
sordid    period    of    the    Revolution.      "  Luxury, 


312       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

pleasure  and  art  are  reviving  here  surprisingly," 
he  said.  "  Carriages  and  men  of  fashion  are  aU 
active  once  more,  and  the  prolonged  eclipse  of 
their  gay  career  seems  now  like  a  bad  dream." 

In  the  midst  of  this  agreeable  change  to  which 
even  his  natural  taciturnity  adapted  itself  he  met 
and  married  Josephine,  widow  of  the  Marquis 
de  Beauhamais  who  had  been  guillotined  under 
the  Terror.  They  both  registered  their  ages  in- 
correctly. Napoleon  adding  and  Josephine  sub- 
tracting so  that  the  discrepancy  between  them, 
she  being  older,  might  appear  less.  This  marriage 
introduced  Napoleon  to  a  class  of  people  into 
whose  circle  he  would  not  otherwise  have  pene- 
trated on  equal  terms,  and  he  learned  from  them 
many  social  lessons  which  he  put  to  good  use 
later.  Yet  Talma,  the  actor,  when  accused  of 
having  taught  Napoleon  how  to  walk  and  how  to 
dress  the  part  of  emperor,  denied  that  he  could 
have  given  instruction  to  one  whose  imagination 
was  all-sufficient  to  make  him  imperial  in  speech 
and  bearing.  No  descendant  of  a  royal  line 
ever  wore  more  superb  robes  than  Napoleon  the 
emperor  on  state  occasions,  and  the  elegance  of 
the  throne  on  which  he  sat  was  not  less  than  that 
of  his  predecessors. 

Bonaparte  had  risen  slowly  in  the  army  be- 
cause of  his  open  criticism  of  his  superiors,  but 
by  the  time  of  his  marriage  he  had  become  a  gen- 
eral, and  three  days  after  his  wedding  he  was 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  313 

despatched  to  Italy  to  meet  the  allied  Italians 
and  Aiistrians.  Less  than  two  years  later  the 
war  was  ended  by  the  Peace  of  Campo  Formio. 
In  the  two  months  preceding  its  negotiation 
Bonaparte  had  won  eighteen  battles,  and  had 
collected  enough  indemnity  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  his  own  army,  to  send  a  considerable  sum  to 
the  French  army  on  the  Rhine  and  a  still  greater 
amount  to  the  government  at  home. 

When  it  came  to  making  gifts  to  Paris  he  had 
the  splendid  beneficence  of  the  successful  robber. 
Indemnities  were  paid  in  pictures  as  well  as  in 
money,  bronzes  and  marbles  filled  his  treasure 
trains,  and  the  Louvre  was  enriched  at  Italy's 
expense.  Of  the  wealth  of  rare  books,  of  ancient 
illuminated  manuscripts,  of  priceless  paintings 
and  statuary  pillaged  from  Italy's  libraries, 
monasteries,  churches  and  galleries,  even  from 
the  Vatican  itself,  no  count  has  ever  been 
made.  With  such  treasures  as  Domenichino's 
"  Communion  of  Saint  Jerome  "  and  Raphael's 
*'  Transfiguration  "  under  its  roof  and  with  booty 
arriving  from  the  northern  armies  as  well  as  the 
southern,  it  is  small  wonder  that  the  Louvre  be- 
came the  richest  storehouse  in  the  world.  After 
Napoleon's  fall  many  of  the  works  of  art  were 
returned  whence  they  had  come,  but  enough  were 
left  to  permit  the  great  palace  to  hold  its  reputa- 
tion. 

In  the  turmoil  of  the  Revolution  it  had  been 


314.       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

impossible  for  any  one  person  to  please  every- 
body. Napoleon  was  distrusted  by  a  large  body 
of  the  Parisians  for  the  part  that  he  had  played 
in  the  support  of  the  Convention  in  October, 
1795,  and  these  people  Bonaparte  set  himself  to 
conciliate.  The  Directory,  also,  was  jealous  of 
him.  It  meant  that  the  victorious  general  must 
tread  gently  and  not  seem  to  have  his  head  turned 
by  the  honors  paid  to  his  successes.  There  were 
festivals  at  the  Louvre  where  his  trophies  looked 
down  upon  the  brilliant  scene,  and  at  the  Luxem- 
bourg, superbly  decorated,  upon  the  occasion  of 
his  formal  presentation  to  the  Directory  of  the 
treaty  of  Campo  Formio.  There  were  gala  per- 
formances at  the  theaters  at  which  the  audience 
rose  delightedly  at  Napoleon  if  he  happened  to 
be  present,  and  the  Institute  elected  him  a  life 
member.  This  honor  gave  him  the  excuse  of 
wearing  a  civilian's  coat,  and,  although  when  in 
Italy  he  had  dined  in  public  like  an  ancient  king, 
here  he  lived  quietly  on  the  street  whose  name  was 
changed  to  "  Victory  Street,"  by  way  of  compli- 
ment, and  showed  himself  but  little  in  public, 
the  more  to  pique  the  curiosity  of  the  crowd 
which  acclaimed  Josephine  as  "  Our  Lady  of 
Victories." 

If  he  had  had  any  hope  of  being  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  government  at  this  time,  he  soon  saw 
that  he  was  not  yet  popular  enough  to  carry  a 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  315 

sudden  change,  and  that,  indeed,  it  behooved  him, 
as  he  himself  said,  to  "  keep  his  glory  warm."  To 
that  end  he  set  about  arousing  public  sentiment 
against  England.  He  concluded,  however,  that 
an  invasion  was  not  expedient  at  that  time,  and 
set  sail  for  Egypt,  taking  with  him  the  flower 
of  the  French  army  not  only  for  their  usefulness 
to  himself,  but  that  their  lack  might  embaiTass  the 
government  if  need  for  them  should  arise  in  his 
absence. 

A  curious  bit  of  testimony  to  the  non-religious 
temper  of  the  time  is  the  bit  of  information  that 
though  Bonaparte  included  in  his  traveling 
library  the  Bible,  the  Koran  and  the  Vedas,  they 
were  catalogued  under  the  head  of  "  Politics." 

In  the  next  year  and  a  half  Napoleon  met  with 
both  successes  and  reverses.  He  learned  that,  as 
he  had  foreseen,  the  Directory  was  involved  in 
a  war  with  Italy  which  threatened  its  finan- 
cial credit  and  its  stability,  while  at  home  its  ty- 
rannical rule  was  adding  daily  to  its  enemies. 
Bonaparte  saw  his  chance  and  determined  to 
leave  Egypt,  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Italian  armies  and  then  to  go  to  Paris,  fresh  from 
the  victories  which  he  was  sure  to  win,  and  to 
present  himself  to  the  people  as  their  liberator. 
Leaving  his  army  and  setting  sail  with  a  few 
friends  he  touched  at  Corsica  where  he  learned 
that  France  was  even  riper  for  his  coming  than 


316       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

he  had  supposed,  and  accordingly  abandoned  the 
Italian  plan  and  went  directly  home.  So  hope- 
fully did  the  people  look  to  him  for  relief  from 
their  troubles  that  his  whole  j  ourney  from  Lyons 
to  Paris  was  one  long  ovation,  while  his  reception 
by  the  Parisians  was  of  an  enthusiasm  which  be- 
trayed much  of  their  feeling  toward  the  govern- 
ment and  promised  much  to  the  man  who  would 
bring  about  a  change. 

Napoleon  was  only  too  glad  to  accommodate 
them.  He  tested  the  opinion  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Directory  and  skillfully  put  each  man  into  a  posi- 
tion where  he  felt  forced  to  support  the  gen- 
eral. Josephine  played  her  part  in  the  political 
intrigue;  Lucien  Bonaparte,  who  had  been 
elected  President  of  the  Five  Hundred  by  way 
of  compliment  to  his  brother,  played  his.  Ac- 
cording to  pre-arrangement  the  Council  of  the 
Ancients  sitting  in  the  Tuileries  decreed  that 
both  houses  should  adjourn  at  once  to  Saint 
Cloud  that  they  might  be  undisturbed  by  the 
unrest  of  Paris,  and  that  Bonaparte  be  ap- 
pointed to  the  command  of  the  Guard  of  the 
Directory,  of  the  National  Guard,  and  of  the 
garrison  of  Paris,  that  he  might  secure  the  safety 
of  the  Legislature. 

Napoleon,  who  was  waiting  for  the  order  at 
his  house  (not  far  north  of  the  present  Opera) 
rode  to  the  Tuileries  and  accepted  his  commis- 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  317 

sion.  The  next  day,  at  Saint  Cloud,  he  utilized 
his  popularity  with  the  soldiers  to  force  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Directory.  The  result  was  gained 
by  trickery  but  it  was  nevertheless  satisfactory 
to  the  people  who  went  quietly  about  their  affairs 
in  Paris  while  the  excitement  was  on  at  Saint 
Cloud  and  expressed  themselves  afterwards  as 
amply  pleased  with  the  coup  dfetat.  A  new 
constitution  was  adopted.  The  government  was 
vested  in  three  consuls,  Napoleon,  on  December 
15,  1799,  being  made  First  Consul  for  ten  years. 
All  three  consuls  were  given  apartments  in  the 
Tuileries  but  one  of  the  others  had  the  foresight 
never  to  occupy  a  building  from  which  he  might 
be  ejected  by  the  one  who  said  to  his  secretary 
when  he  entered  it,  "  Well,  Bourienne,  here  we 
are  at  the  Tuileries.    Now  we  must  stay  here." 

Stay  there  he  did,  and  the  palace  saw  a  more 
brilliant  court  than  ever  it  had  sheltered  under 
royalty.  Josephine  was  a  woman  of  taste  and 
tact,  and  the  building  which  Marie  Antoinette 
found  bare  even  of  necessary  furnishings  at  the 
end  of  her  enforced  journey  from  Versailles,  the 
wife  of  the  First  Consul  arrayed  in  elegance  and 
used  as  a  social-political  battle  field  in  which  she 
was  as  competent  as  was  her  husband  in  the  open. 
"  I  win  battles,"  Napoleon  said,  "  but  Josephine 
wins  hearts."  Dress  became  elegant  once  more 
and  not  only  women  but  men  were  as  richly 


318       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

attired  as  if  the  Revolution  with  its  plain 
democratic  apparel  had  not  intervened.  Once 
more  men  wore  knee  breeches  and  silk  stockings, 
and  it  was  only  the  aristocrats  whose  property 
had  been  confiscated  who  advertised  their  poverty 
by  wearing  trousers,  "  citizen  fashion." 

"  Citizen,"  as  a  title,  fell  into  disuse,  and  once 
again  "  Monsieur  "  and  "  Madame  "  were  used  as 
terms  of  address.  At  first  the  consuls  were  ad- 
dressed as  "  Citoyen  premier  consul,"  "  Citoyen 
second  consul,"  and  "  Citoyen  troisieme  con- 
sul." The  clumsiness  of  these  titles  induced  M. 
de  Talleyrand  to  propose  as  abbreviations  "  Hie, 
Haec  Hoc:'  "  These  would  perfectly  fit  the 
three  consuls,"  he  added;  ''Hie  for  the  mascu- 
line, Bonaparte;  haec  for  the  feminine,  Cam- 
baceres,  who  was  a  lady's  man,  and  hoc,  the 
neutral  Lebrun,  who  was  a  figurehead." 

Napoleon's  acquaintance  with  other  capitals 
spurred  him  to  emulate  their  beauties  and  his 
knowledge  of  engineering  helped  him  to  bring 
them  into  being  in  his  own.  He  opened  no  fewer 
than  sixty  new  streets,  often  combining  in  the 
result  civic  elegance  with  the  better  sanitation 
whose  desirability  he  had  learned  from  his  care  of 
the  health  of  his  armies.  He  swept  away  masses 
of  old  houses  on  the  Cite,  he  tore  down  the 
noisome  prisons  of  the  Chatelet  and  the  tower  of 
the  Temple  and  laid  out  squares  on  their  sites. 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  319 

he  built  sidewalks,  condemned  sewage  to  sewers 
instead  of  allowing  it  to  flow  in  streams  down  the 
center  of  the  streets,  introduced  gas  for  lighting, 
and  completed  the  numbering  of  houses,  an 
undertaking  which  had  been  hanging  on  for 
seventy-five  years. 

He  added  to  the  convenience  of  the  Parisians 
by  building  new  bridges,  two  commemorating 
the  battles  of  Austerlitz  and  Jena,  and  one, 
the  only  foot-bridge  across  the  river,  called 
the  "  Arts "  because  it  leads  to  the  School 
of  Fine  Arts  and  the  Institute  which  houses  the 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  He  made  living  easier 
by  opening  abattoirs  and  increasing  the  number 
of  markets.  He  helped  business  enterprises  by 
constructing  quays  along  the  Seine  and  by 
establishing  the  Halle  aux  Vins  where  wine  may 
be  stored  in  bond  until  required  by  the  merchants. 
This  market  also  relieved  such  congestion  as  had 
tiu'ned  the  old  Roman  Thermes  into  a  store- 
house for  wine  casks.  New  cemeteries  on  the  out- 
skirts, one  of  them  the  famous  Pere  Lachaise,  the 
names  upon  whose  tombs  read  like  a  roster  of  the 
nineteenth  century's  great,  lessened  the  crowding 
of  the  graveyards  and  the  resulting  danger  in  the 
thickly  settled  parts  of  the  city. 

^The  First  Consul's  methods  of  reducing  to 
order  the  disorder  of  France  grew  more  and  more 
stifling,  his  basic  principle  more  and  more  that  of 


320       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

centralization.  Independence  of  thought  as  it 
found  expression  in  pohtics,  he  silenced  as  he 
silenced  the  newspapers  and  censored  all  literary- 
output.  He  set  in  action  the  modern  machinery 
of  the  University  of  France,  and  he  supervised 
the  planning  of  the  entire  elementary  school 
system,  so  centralized,  that  it  is  possible  to  know 
in  Paris  to-day,  as  he  did,  "  What  every  child  of 
France  is  doing  at  this  moment." 

Unhampered  trade  and  commerce,  improved 
methods  of  transportation,  a  definite  financial 
system  headed  by  the  Bank  of  France,  a  uniform 
code  of  laws — all  these  contributions  to  stability 
were  entered  into  in  detail  by  the  marvelous 
visualizing  mind  whose  vision  could  pierce  the 
walls  of  the  Tuileries  and  foresee  that  battle 
would  be  waged  at  the  spot  called  Marengo  on 
the  map  lying  on  the  table. 

Early  in  1800  war  was  renewed  in  Italy  and 
Napoleon  in  person  superintended  the  perilous 
crossing  of  the  Alps.  Yet  although  the  news 
of  the  victory  at  Marengo  was  celebrated  in 
Paris  with  cheers  and  bonfires,  the  successes  of 
the  French  armies  in  Italy  and  in  Germany  did 
not  secm-e  full  popularity  to  the  First  Consul 
in  Paris,  for  on  Christmas  Eve,  1800,  an  attempt 
was  made  upon  his  life  as  he  was  driving  through 
a  narrow  street  near  the  Tuileries.  The  bomb 
which  was  meant  to  kill  him  fell  too  far  behind 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  321 

his  carriage,  however,  and  the  only  result  of  the 
plot  was  that  he  was  provided  with  an  excuse  for 
ridding  himself  by  exile  and  execution  of  some 
two  hundred  men  whom  he  looked  upon  as  his 
enemies. 

In  1802  the  Peace  of  Amiens  put  a  temporary 
stop  to  the  war,  and  Napoleon  looked  to  France 
to  reward  him  for  winning  glory  and  territory 
for  the  French  flag.  Already  he  was  impatient 
of  the  ten-year  limitation  of  his  power,  and  it 
was  his  own  suggestion  that  the  people  should 
be  asked,  "  Shall  Napoleon  Bonaparte  be  made 
Consul  for  life?"  This  referendum  resulted 
overwhelmingly  in  his  favor.  He  was  appointed 
Consul  for  life  with  the  right  not  only  to  choose 
his  successor  but  to  nominate  his  colleagues. 
Then  he  encouraged  French  manufactures,  he 
regulated  taxes,  he  established  art  galleries  in 
Paris  and  the  departments,  incidentally  banishing 
the  artists'  studios  whose  establishment  had  been 
allowed  in  the  Louvre  and  in  the  side  chapels  of 
the  church  of  the  Sorbonne.  He  offered  exemp- 
tion from  military  service  to  students  and  other 
people  to  whom  it  would  be  a  hardship,  such  as 
the  only  sons  of  widows,  he  assisted  scientific 
men,  among  them  our  own  Robert  Fulton  who, 
in  1803,  built  a  steamboat  which  sank  in  the  Seine. 
The  nobility,  whom  Napoleon  encouraged  to  re- 
turn from  exile,  were  allowed  to  use  their  titles, 


322       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

thereby  establishing  a  precedent  for  the  time 
when  he  himself  would  be  creating  dukes.  For 
the  moment  he  declared  an  aristocracy  of  merit 
by  founding  the  Legion  of  Honor  to  which  men 
are  eligible  by  distinguished  service  to  France 
in  any  field.  The  nation  felt  a  soundness  and  a 
comfort  that  it  had  not  known  for  many  a  long 
year. 

Even  the  outside  nations  that  had  been  at  war 
with  France  thought  it  safe  to  visit  it  again  and 
Paris  was  full  of  travelers  who  admired  the  new 
rue  de  Rivoli  whose  arcades  run  parallel  with  the 
Tuileries  gardens.  They  found,  too,  that  the  old 
names  of  before  the  Revolution  were  being 
adopted  once  more — the  Place  de  la  Revolution 
became  again  the  Place  Louis  XV — and  the 
old  etiquettes  and  elegances  of  roj^alty  resumed. 
Josephine's  aristocratic  connections  helped  to  re- 
late the  old  nobility  with  the  new  court  and  its 
"  new  "  members  whose  fortunes  had  risen  with 
their  leader's.  Much  of  the  glitter  of  the 
Tuileries  came  from  the  great  number  of  soldiers 
always  in  evidence,  for  Napoleon's  suspicious 
nature  caused  him  to  have  a  large  military 
escort  wherever  he  went.  His  professional  zeal 
prompted  the  careful  review  of  the  troops  which 
he  made  every  Sunday,  and  which  was  one  of  the 
"  sights  "  for  the  tourists  of  the  day  who  looked 


PARIS  OF  NArOLEON  323 

with  an  approach  to  awe  upon  the  exact  lines  of 
grenadiers  drilled  to  an  astonishing  accuracy. 

As  in  the  days  of  Francis  I  and  Louis  XIV 
the  classical  in  art  and  language  touched  the 
pinnacle  of  popularity.  With  the  government 
in  the  hands  of  "  Consids  "  it  was  appropriate 
that  the  legislative  body  should  be  called  the 
"  Tribunate."  The  Tribunate  held  its  sessions  in 
the  Palais  Royal  which  had  been  called  Equality 
Palace  during  the  Revolution  and  was  now 
christened  Palace  of  the  Tribunate. 

It  was  through  the  Tribunate  that  Napoleon 
manipulated  the  offer  of  the  title  of  Emperor 
which  was  made  to  him  in  1804.  It  came  as  the 
crown  of  his  ambition  because  it  was  the  recogni- 
tion of  both  his  military  skill  and  his  political  and 
administrative  ability.  Pie  expressed  his  feeling 
when  he  refused  the  suggestion  for  an  imperial 
seal  of  "  a  lion  resting  "  and  proposed  instead 
"  an  eagle  soaring." 

Success  is  a  heady  draught.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  career  Bonaparte  used  to  compliment 
his  generals  by  saying,  "  You  have  fought 
splendidly."  After  a  time  he  said,  ''  We  have 
fought  splendidly."  Still  later  his  comment  was, 
"  You  must  allow  that  I  have  won  a  splendid 
battle." 

With  the  pope  Napoleon  had  made  an  ar- 
rangement, the  Concordat,  by  which  he  restored 


324       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  Roman  Catholic  as  the  national  church  of 
France.  The  papal  power  was  not  accepted  as 
in  other  countries,  but  the  treaty  gave  him  a  hold 
over  the  pope  so  that  when  the  new  emperor,  to 
conciliate  the  royalists  who  were  all  Romanists, 
summoned  him  to  assist  at  his  coronation,  Pius 
VII  felt  himself  constrained  to  obey.  He  was 
lodged  in  the  Pavilion  of  Flora,  the  western  tip  of 
Henry  IV's  south  wing  of  the  Louvre,  over- 
looking the  Seine. 

Napoleon  and  Josephine  had  been  married 
only  with  the  civil  ceremony,  as  was  the  custom 
during  the  Revolution.  On  the  day  before  the 
coronation  Cardinal  Fesch,  Napoleon's  uncle, 
married  them  with  the  religious  ceremony  in  the 
chapel  of  the  Tuileries.  The  celebration  of  the 
Concordat  had  been  conducted  magnificently  in 
Notre  Dame,  but  the  coronation  on  December  2, 
1804,  was  the  most  splendid  of  the  many  splendid 
scenes  upon  which  the  Gothic  dignity  of  the 
cathedral  had  looked  down.  In  preparation, 
many  small  buildings  round  about  were  pulled 
down  and  many  streets  suppressed  or  widened. 
Decorated,  with  superb  tapestries,  resounding* 
with  the  solemn  voices  of  the  choir,  the  ancient 
church  held  a  scene  brilliant  with  the  uniforms 
of  generals  and  the  rich  costumes  of  officers 
of  state  and  of  representatives  from  all  France, 
aflutter   with   plumes   and   glittering   with   the 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  325 

beauty  and  the  jewels  of  the  fairest  women 
of  the  court.  It  was  a  scene  unique  in  history, 
for  never  before  had  a  man  of  the  people 
commanded  so  superb  a  train  every  one  of 
whom  was  alert  with  a  personal  interest  in  a 
ceremony  which  meant  his  own  elevation  as 
well  as  that  of  the  aspirant  to  the  power  of  that 
Charlemagne  whose  sword  and  insignia  he  had 
caused  to  be  brought  for  the  occasion. 

The  pope  and  his  attendants  advanced  in 
dignified  procession,  acclaimed  by  the  solemn 
hail  of  the  intoning  clergy.  Before  the  high 
altar  the  Holy  Father  performed  the  service  of 
consecration,  anointing  for  his  office  the  man  who 
had  been  chosen  to  it  by  the  will  of  the  people. 
Then,  as  he  was  about  to  replace  the  gold 
laurel  wreath  of  the  victor  with  a  replica  of 
Charlemagne's  crown,  Napoleon  characteris- 
tically seized  it  and  placed  it  on  his  own  head. 

With  his  own  hands,  too,  he  crowned  Jose- 
phine. She  was  dressed  like  her  husband  in  flow- 
ing robes  of  purple  velvet  heavily  sown  with  the 
golden  bee  which  Napoleon  had  copied  from 
those  found  in  the  tomb  of  Childeric,  father  of 
Clovis,  and  which  he  had  adopted  as  the  imperial 
emblem  because  he  wanted  one  older  than  the 
royalist  fleur-de-lis.  Followed  by  ladies  of  the 
court,  her  mantle  borne  by  her  sisters-in-law,  who 
had  been  made  princesses,  Josephine  knelt, 
weeping,  before  Napoleon,  who  placed  her  crown 


326       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

lightly  on  his  own  head  and  then  laid  it  upon  that 
of  his  empress.  David's  famous  picture  hanging 
in  the  Louvre  has  saved  this  moment  for 
posterity. 

On  the  night  before  the  coronation  the  city 
was  plastered  by  royalist  wits  with  j)lacards 
which  read:  "  Final  performance  of  the  French 
Revolution.  For  the  benefit  of  a  poor  Corsican 
family." 

A  fortnight  later  the  emperor  and  empress 
were  entertained  by  the  city  fathers  at  a  banquet. 
The  Hotel  de  Ville  had  been  gorgeously  done 
over  for  the  coronation,  the  throne  room  being 
himg  with  red  velvet  sown  with  the  imperial  bee. 
On  the  return  of  the  distinguished  guests  to  the 
Tuileries  the  streets  were  illuminated,  and  on  the 
Cite  a  display  of  fireworks  lighted  up  the  ancient 
buildings. 

The  "  poor  Corsican  family  "  did  indeed  profit 
by  the  successes  of  its  prosperous  member. 
After  the  coronation  the  imperial  court  far  ex- 
ceeded in  elegance  the  court  of  the  Consulate. 
Many  of  the  ancient  offices — Grand  Almoner, 
Grand  Marshal,  Grand  Chamberlain — were  re- 
vived from  the  days  of  the  Bourbons;  many  of 
them,  indeed,  were  held  by  members  of  the  old 
nobility;  and  it  was  one  of  Louis  XVI's  former 
ambassadors  to  Russia  who  held  the  post  of 
Master  of   Ceremonies,   instructing,   rehearsing 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  327 

and  laying  down  the  laws  of  etiquette  for  public 
functions  according  to  the  customs  of  the  old 
regime. 

Soon  after  the  coronation  Paris  was  again 
deserted  of  its  foreign  tourists  for  once  again  war 
was  imminent.  Napoleon  was  so  sure  of  the  suc- 
cess of  his  proposed  invasion  of  England  that  he 
supplied  himself  with  gold  medals  inscribed 
"  Struck  at  London  in  1804."  Nelson's  victory 
at  Trafalgar  put  an  end  to  the  usefulness  of 
these  medals,  and  the  great  fighter  turned  his  at- 
tention to  other  foes  than  the  English.  Six 
weeks  later  he  defeated  the  combined  forces  of 
Russia  and  Austria  at  Austerlitz  and  sent  to 
Paris  one  thousand  two  hundred  captured  can- 
non which  were  melted  down  to  make  the  colmiin 
which  stands  to-day  in  the  Place  Vendome. 

Events  of  the  campaign  are  pictured  in  relief 
on  the  bronze  plates  which  wind  in  a  spiral  around 
the  Vendome  column.  On  the  top  stood  a  statue 
of  Napoleon  dressed  in  a  toga  according  to  the 
classic  fashion  of  the  moment.  At  the  Restora- 
tion in  1814  this  statue  was  taken  down  and  its 
metal  used  for  the  making  of  a  new  statue  of 
Henry  IV  on  the  Pont  Neuf,  the  former  statue 
having  been  destroyed  during  the  Revolution. 
For  seventeen  years  the  white  flag  of  the 
Bourbons  floated  from  the  Vendome  column,  and 
then    Louis    Philippe    substituted    a   statue    of 


328       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Napoleon  in  campaign  uniform.  For  thirty-two 
years  this  figm^e  looked  down  the  rue  Castiglione 
to  the  Tuileries  gardens,  and  then  Napoleon  III 
replaced  it  by  a  Napoleon  once  more  in  classic 
dress.  He  did  not  stand  long,  however,  for  in 
the  troubles  of  1871  the  Communards  pulled 
down  the  whole  column.  Four  years  later  it  was 
reerected  and  is  now  topped  by  Napoleon  in  his 
imperial  robes. 

The  Place  Vendome  in  which  the  column 
stands,  and  the  arcaded  rue  Castiglione  which 
leads  into  it  from  the  similarly  arcaded  rue  de 
Rivoli,  are,  like  the  Place  des  Victoires,  guarded 
against  change  by  a  municipal  law.  In  the  case 
of  the  squares,  each  laid  out  as  a  unit,  it  is  easily 
seen  that  any  change  in  the  fa9ades  would  do 
serious  injury  to  the  harmony  of  the  whole.  The 
arcades  of  the  rue  Castiglione  have  their  orna- 
mental value  in  furnishing  an  approach  to  the 
Place  Vendome.  To  a  dispassionate  eye,  how- 
ever, the  chimney-pots  and  skylights  of  the  rue 
de  Rivoli  so  overbalance  by  their  ugliness  the 
symmetry  of  the  arcades  below  that  the  im- 
pertinent traveler  feels  moved  to  ask  for  an 
amendment  to  the  law  as  far  as  this  street  is 
concerned.  The  same  ugly  roofs  mar  the  other- 
wise beautiful  addition  which  Napoleon  made  to 
the  L(Ou\Te. 

In  1806  Napoleon  reconstructed  the  German 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  329 

Empire  and  secured  the  dependence  of  Naples 
and  the  Netherlands  upon  himself  by  placing  his 
brothers  on  their  thrones,  and  of  other  sections 
of  Italy  by  granting  their  government  to  nine- 
teen dukes  of  his  own  creation.  Then  followed 
the  battles  of  Jena,  Eylau,  and  Friedland  which 
humbled  Prussia,  and  the  festivals  which  wel- 
comed the  conqueror  to  Paris  surpassed  in  bril- 
liancy any  that  had  gone  before.  Two  of  the 
triumphal  arches  which  beautify  Paris  were 
raised  to  commemorate  these  victories.  The 
Triumphal  Arch  of  the  Carrousel,  a  reduced  copy 
of  the  arch  of  Septimius  Severus  in  Rome,  was 
built  as  an  entrance  to  the  Tuileries  from  the 
small  square  of  the  Carrousel.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  the 
whole  of  the  north  wing  of  the  Louvre  was  non- 
existent, its  site  being  occupied  by  a  tangle  of 
small  streets  and  mean  houses,  whose  destruction 
was  merely  entered  upon  when  Napoleon  I  began 
to  build  the  section  of  the  palace  running  east 
from  the  rue  de  Rivoli  end  of  the  Tuileries  to- 
ward the  ancient  quadrangle  of  the  Louvre. 
Upon  the  top  of  the  arch  was  placed  the  bronze 
Quadriga  from  Saint  Mark's  in  Venice  which 
Bonaparte  sent  home  after  his  first  Italian  cam- 
paign. After  Napoleon's  fall  the  horses  were 
sent  back  to  Italy  and  replaced  on  the  arch  by  a 
modern  quadriga. 


330       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

The  Arc  de  Triomphe  de  I'Etoile,  a  mammoth 
construction  begmi  by  Napoleon  on  the  crest  of 
a  slope  approached  by  twelve  broad  avenues,  is 
adorned  with  historical  groups  and  bas-reliefs 
which  repay  a  close  examination,  but  the  impres- 
siveness  of  the  monument  rests  in  its  dominating 
position  which  makes  it  one  of  the  focal  points  in 
a  panoramic  view  of  the  city.  It  is  a  majestic 
finish  to  the  vista  of  the  Champs  Elysees  seen 
from  the  Place  de  la  Concorde.  Although  many 
different  forms  of  decoration  have  been  suggested 
for  the  top  of  the  arch,  and  some  have  even  been 
tried  by  models,  none  has  been  found  satisfactory, 
and  the  great  mass  remains  incomplete. 

Though  France  had  returned  fom  its  Rev- 
olutionary wanderings  and  once  again  had  an 
established  religion,  and  though  the  Emperor 
went  to  mass  as  regularly  as  his  army  duties 
permitted,  there  was  practically  no  building  of 
new  churches  by  Napoleon.  It  was  a  sufficient 
task  to  repair  the  mutilations  of  the  Revolution. 
The  church  of  Sainte  Genevieve — the  Pantheon 
— was  consecrated  in  the  early  years  of  the  Con- 
sulate. In  1806  the  construction  of  the  Made- 
leine, which  had  been  begun  some  sixty  years  be- 
fore, was  renewed,  not,  however,  as  a  church,  but 
as  a  Temple  of  Glory.  Before  it  was  finished  the 
Restoration  had  come  and  had  turned  it  into  a 
church  again. 


TRIUMPHAL    ARCH     OF    THE     CARROUSEL. 


TRIUMPHAL     ARCH     OF    THE    STAR. 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  331 

The  Madeleine  shows  the  classic  influence,  as 
does  the  Bourse,  whose  heavy  columns,  while 
decorative,  do  not  seem  to  be  especially  appro- 
priate for  an  Exchange.  Victor  Hugo  scorn- 
fully says  that  so  far  as  any  apparent  adaptation 
to  its  purpose  is  to  be  seen  the  Bourse  might  be  a 
king's  palace,  a  House  of  Commons,  a  city  hall, 
a  college,  a  riding  school,  an  academy,  a  store- 
house, a  court  house,  a  museum,  barracks,  a 
tomb,  a  temple  or  a  theater. 

And  it  might ! 

The  Bourse  makes  itself  known  at  some  dis- 
tance by  the  noise  which  rises  from  its  coulisses  or 
"  wings  " — our  "  curb  " — where  a  constant  fury 
of  chatter  is  going  on. 

The  pillared  facade  on  the  Seine  side  of  the 
present  Palace  of  Deputies  was  designed  to 
harmonize  with  the  fa9ade  of  the  Madeleine  at  the 
northern  end  of  the  rue  Royale.  This  front,  con- 
spicuous from  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  is  not  the 
real  front  of  the  Palais  Bourbon  whose  main 
entrance  is  on  the  rue  de  I'Universite. 

While  anything  in  Europe  remained  apart 
from  his  control  Napoleon  was  not  happy,  so 
after  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  he  turned  his  attention 
to  the  south  once  more.  Portugal  yielded  to  him 
through  sheer  terror.  He  compelled  the  abdica- 
tion of  the  king  of  Spain,  but  here  England  inter- 
fered, and  the  Peninsular  War  brought  him  its 


332       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

reverses.  Renewed  war  with  Austria,  however, 
added  the  battle  of  Wagram  to  the  list  of  the 
great  fighter's  victories.  He  was  at  the  summit 
of  his  power  and  his  very  successes  made  him 
increasingly  conscious  that  he  had  no  son  to  in- 
herit the  fruits  of  his  life  work.  He  realized  fully 
that  Josephine's  tact  and  diplomacy  had  won  him 
many  a  bloodless  victory,  and  he  had  an  almost 
superstitious  belief  that  she  brought  him  luck. 
However,  ambition  conquered  affection.  Eugene 
Beauharnais,  Josephine's  son,  was  compelled  to 
approve  before  the  Senate  the  divorce  which  the 
pope  would  not  confirm  but  which  the  clergy  of 
Paris  were  forced  to  grant.  Josephine,  though 
stricken  with  grief,  bore  herself  bravely  before 
the  court  during  her  last  evening  at  the  Tuileries 
where  the  divorce  was  pronounced.  She  with- 
drew to  Malmaison,  some  six  miles  out  of  the  city, 
where  she  died  in  1814,  Napoleon's  name  the  last 
word  on  her  lips. 

Failing  to  arrange  a  Russian  match  Napoleon 
married  Marie  Louise  of  Austria,  first  by  proxy 
in  Vienna,  then  by  a  civil  ceremony  after  the 
bride  reached  France,  and  lastly  by  the  religious 
ceremony  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Louvre.  Car- 
dinal Fesch  gave  the  benediction,  for  the  new 
marriage  was  not  approved  at  Rome.  Indeed, 
thirteen  of  the  cardinals  refused  to  be  present  at 
the  ceremony  and   were   thereafter   called   the 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  333 

"  black  cardinals  "  because  they  were  forbidden 
by  the  emperor  to  wear  their  red  robes. 

Marie  Louise  came  to  Paris  a  frightened  girl, 
for  Napoleon  had  no  reputation  for  gentleness, 
but  she  seems  to  have  found  him  endurable.  It  is 
even  related  that  at  one  time  when  he  caught  her 
experimenting  with  the  making  of  an  omelette  he 
gave  yet  one  more  instance  of  his  omniscience  by 
playfully  teaching  her  how  to  prepare  it.  That 
he  dropped  it  on  the  floor  would  seem  to  prove 
that  Jove  occasionally  nods. 

In  the  following  March  enthusiastic  crowds 
about  the  Tuileries  listened  anxiously  for  the 
cannon  which  should  announce  by  twenty-one  re- 
ports the  birth  of  a  daughter  to  the  empress,  by 
one  hundred  and  one  the  coming  of  a  son.  Their 
joy  rose  to  frenzy  when  the  twenty-second  boom 
announced  an  heir  who  received  the  title  of  the 
King  of  Rome,  and  for  days  the  city  was 
given  over  to  rejoicing.  Napoleon  himself  told 
the  news  to  Josephine  in  a  letter  dated 

Paris,  March  22,  1811 
My  dear, 

I  have  your  letter.  I  thank  you  for  it.  My  son  is 
fat,  and  in  excellent  health.  I  trust  he  may  continue 
to  improve.  He  has  my  chest,  my  mouth  and  my  eyes. 
I  hope  he  will  fulfill  his  destiny. 

Josephine,  who  was  staying  at  Evreux,  com- 


334       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

manded  a  festival  to  be  held  in  the  town,  and 
when  she  returned  to  Malmaison  Napoleon 
secretly  had  the  baby  sent  to  the  country  for  her 
to  see. 

Yet  it  soon  seemed  as  if  the  loss  of  Josephine 
had,  indeed,  deprived  Napoleon  of  his  good 
fortune.  He  quarreled  with  the  pope  and 
even  kept  him  a  prisoner  in  the  palace  of 
Fontainebleau.  This  quarrel  alienated  Catholic 
Frenchmen,  and  they  included  practically  all 
those  with  Bourbon  leanings.  To  pimish  Russia 
for  not  agreeing  to  his  plan  for  humiliating  Eng- 
land by  cutting  off  its  trade  with  the  continent 
he  entered  the  country  in  the  invasion  which 
destroyed  his  army  by  a  death  more  bitter  than 
that  encountered  in  battle. 

During  his  fearful  retreat  from  Moscow  two 
adventurers  almost  succeeded  in  bringing  about 
a  coup  d'etat  in  Paris  by  reading  to  a  body  of  the 
soldiers  a  proclamation  purporting  to  be  from  the 
Senate,  and  by  capturing  the  Prefect  of  Police 
and  the  City  Hall.  The  news  reached  Napoleon 
and  when  he  realized  that  so  much  had  been  ac- 
complished without  any  outcry  being  made  for  a 
continuance  of  the  Napoleonic  line,  he  left  the 
army  and  went  post  haste  to  the  city,  where  he 
found  hostile  placards  constantly  being  posted. 
His  presence  quieted  the  ominous  disturbance, 
and  he  drove  impressively  with  the  empress  to  the 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  335 

Senate  in  a  glassed  carriage  drawn  by  cream- 
colored  horses,  and  there  and  elsewhere  spread 
falsely  reassuring  reports  minimizing  the  losses  in 
Russia.  Very  soon,  however,  the  truth  carried 
mourning  to  almost  every  home  in  France,  and 
with  it  hatred  of  the  man  who  had  brought  it  to 
pass. 

In  January,  1813,  the  Emperor  left  once  more 
for  the  front  after  appointing  Marie  Louise  as 
regent  and  confiding  her  and  the  King  of  Rome 
to  the  care  of  the  National  Guard  assembled  be- 
fore the  Tuileries. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  genius  that  had  sent 
Napoleon  to  victory  after  victory  with  almost 
clairvoyant  intelligence  was  now  failing.  He 
lacked  decision  and  his  generals  were  not 
trained  to  help  him.  He  made  blunder  after 
blunder  coldly  disheartening  to  sorrowful  France. 
"  Have  the  people  of  Paris  gone  crazy?  "  he  cried 
angrily  when  he  heard  that  public  prayers  were 
being  offered  for  the  success  of  the  campaign. 

Prayers  were  needed.  The  "  army  of  boys," 
all  that  Napoleon  could  raise  after  the  disastrous 
retreat  from  Moscow,  was  defeated  at  Leipsic 
late  in  1813,  and  the  allies — England,  Russia, 
Prussia,  Sweden  and  Austria — pressed  upon 
Paris  both  from  the  north  and  the  south.  The 
city  was  no  longer  guarded  by  defensible  walls 
and  her  reliance  could  be  only  in  her  garrison  of 


336       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

about  twenty-five  thousand  men.  Marie  Louise, 
the  regent,  fled  from  the  city  on  March  29, 
1814,  and  on  the  next  day  Napoleon  left 
Fontainebleau  at  the  head  of  a  few  cavalry 
to  lend  his  aid,  but  found  that  the  city  already 
had  yielded.  On  the  thirty-first  the  King  of 
Prussia  and  the  Czar  entered  Paris  on  the 
north  by  the  faubourg  Saint  Martin,  finding 
a  welcome  from  the  white-cockaded  royalists. 
Within  three  weeks  Napoleon  had  abdicated  and 
had  started  for  his  modest  throne  on  the  island  of 
Elba,  and  a  fortnight  later  Louis  XVIII, 
brother  of  Louis  XVI,  made  his  formal  entry. 
The  people,  trained  to  Napoleon's  magnificence, 
looked  coldly  on  the  fat,  plainly  dressed  elderly 
man  who  di'ove  to  the  Tuileries  in  a  carriage  be- 
longing to  his  predecessor,  whose  arms  had  been 
badly  erased  and  imperfectly  covered  by  those 
of  the  Bourbons. 

Paris  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  the  man  it  had  come 
to  look  upon  as  a  vampire  draining  the  strength 
of  France  to  feed  his  personal  ambition,  yet  the 
city  by  no  means  enjoyed  the  presence  of  the 
allies.  They  insisted  on  the  return  to  Italy  of 
many  of  the  art  treasures  on  which  the  Parisians 
had  come  to  look  with  the  pride  of  possession. 
There  were  constant  quarrels  of  citizens  with  the 
invading  officers  and  the  townsfolk  were  nettled 
at  the  frank  curiosity  with  which  they  and  their 


NAPOLEONS    TOMB. 


PARIS  OF  NAPOLEON  337 

city  were  scrutinized  by  the  many  travelers  of  all 
nations  who  poured  in  immediately.  It  was  then 
that  a  rope  was  laid  about  the  neck  of  Napoleon 
on  the  Vendome  column  and  he  was  lowered  to 
the  ground  to  be  replaced  by  the  Bourbon  flag. 

Less  than  a  year  afterwards  Paris  was  aquiver 
over  the  report  that  the  chained  lion  had  broken 
loose  and  was  advancing  to  the  city  in  the  march 
which  he  declared  at  Saint  Helena  was  the  hap- 
piest period  of  his  life.  The  fickle  peasants  who 
had  pursued  him  out  of  the  country  so  that  he  had 
had  to  disguise  himself  as  a  white-cockaded  post- 
boy to  escape  them,  now  received  him  joyfully. 
At  his  approach  Louis  fled  from  the  Tuileries, 
but  Napoleon  did  not  occupy  the  palace.  It  was 
at  the  palace  of  the  Elysee  that  he  worked  out  his 
plans  against  the  allies,  and  it  was  there  that  he 
signed  his  abdication  when  the  defeat  at  Waterloo 
put  an  end  to  the  Hundred  Days.  Three  days 
later  he  went  to  Malmaison,  and  he  never  saw 
Paris  again.  He  died  in  1821  at  Saint  Helena, 
In  December,  1840,  Louis  Philippe  caused  his 
remains  to  be  brought  to  Paris  where  they  were 
borne  beneath  the  completed  Arch  of  the  Star 
and  down  the  Champs  Elysees,  and  were  laid 
under  the  Dome  of  the  Invalides  that  the  request 
of  his  will  might  be  granted:  "  I  desire  that  my 
ashes  repose  on  the  banks  of  the  Seine  among  the 
French  people  whom  I  have  so  greatly  loved." 


CHAPTER  XX 

PARIS  OF  THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS 

IT  was  the  25th  of  June,  1815,  when  Napoleon 
left  Paris  for  the  last  time.  On  July  7  the 
allies  entered  the  city  after  some  unimportant 
skirmishing  on  the  outskirts,  and  on  the  next  day 
Louis  XVIII  again  took  up  his  residence  in  the 
Tuileries.  The  Second  Restoration  of  the  Bour- 
bons had  come  to  pass. 

Louis  found  himself  received  with  even  less 
enthusiasm  than  on  his  first  appearance,  and  his 
people  loved  him  less  and  less  during  the  nine 
years  of  his  reign.  He  confirmed  his  earlier 
charter  establishing  personal  and  religious  free- 
dom and  equality  before  the  law  and  the  freedom 
of  the  press.  He  fell  more  and  more,  however, 
under  the  influence  of  the  conservative  element, 
with  the  result  that  he  permitted  a  savage  per- 
secution of  the  Bonapartists,  let  education  come 
under  sectarian  control,  and  imposed  on  the 
laboring  classes  a  narrow  ecclesiasticism  which 
aroused  their  ire.  When  he  was  forced  by  Russia, 
Austria  and  Prussia  to  fight  in  support  of  the 
tyrannical  king  of  Spain,  Ferdinand  VII,  against 
a  democratic  movement,  he  placed  the  Bourbons 

338 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  339 

of  the  Restoration  on  record  as  sympathetic  with 
autocracy. 

Paris  was  in  no  peaceful  state.  There  were 
many  of  Napoleon's  old  soldiers  in  town  who 
were  constantly  quarreling  with  the  monarchists 
in  restaurants  and  theaters.  An  assassin  killed 
the  Duke  of  Berry,  the  son  of  Louis'  brother 
who  succeeded  him  as  Charles  X.  The  execution 
for  political  conspiracy  of  four  young  men  known 
as  the  "  four  sergeants  of  La  Rochelle  "  made  a 
great  stir  among  the  lower  classes  of  the  city,  al- 
ways an  inflammable  element. 

The  town  was  forced,  also,  to  pay  her  share 
of  the  war  indemnity  and  of  the  support  of  the 
garrisons  with  which  the  allies  saddled  the 
frontier  and  the  chief  cities.  One  hundred 
twenty-five  thousand  dollars  a  day  was  the  simi 
which  Paris  expended  in  hospitality  toward  her 
very  unwelcome  guests.  Needless  to  say  there 
was  not  much  ready  money  for  improving  the 
city. 

One  reverent  monument,  the  Chapelle  Ex- 
piatoire,  the  king  did  begin  to  the  memory  of  his 
brother.  The  bodies  of  Louis  XVI  and  Marie 
Antoinette  had  been  buried  in  the  graveyard  be- 
hind the  Madeleine.  Their  remains  were  removed 
to  Saint  Denis  in  1815,  but  the  small  domed 
chapel,  hemmed  in  to-day  by  busy  Paris  streets, 
rises  in  remembrance  of  them  and  sanctifies  the 


340       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

one  great  grave  before  it  in  which  lie  the  bodies  of 
two  thousand  unrecorded  victims  of  the  Revoki- 
tion,  while  the  barrier  on  right  and  left  is  formed 
by  the  tombs  of  the  seven  hundred  Swiss  guards 
slain  in  defense  of  their  sovereigns  when  the  mob 
stormed  the  Tuileries  on  the  tenth  of  August, 
1792. 

The  renewed  religious  feeling  introduced  by 
the  royalists  expressed  itself  in  the  erection  of 
two  churches,  Saint  Vincent-de-Paul  and  Our 
Lady  of  Loretto,  both  in  the  style  of  Latin 
basilicas,  though  Saint  Vincent's  is  made  majes- 
tic by  two  square  towers  not  unlike  those  on 
Saint  Sulpice.  The  approach  to  Saint  Vincent's 
is  by  two  semicircular  inclined  planes,  divided 
by  a  flight  of  steps — a  handsome  entrance. 
There  are  but  few  at  all  like  it  in  all  Paris. 
More  interesting  than  the  architecture  of  these 
churches  is  their  position,  on  the  north  and  just 
within  the  "  exterior  boulevards  "  which  mark 
Louis  XVI's  wall.  Population  must  have  in- 
creased heavily  in  this  district  to  call  for  two 
churches  of  large  size  and  so  near  together. 
Many  of  the  fifty-five  new  streets  laid  out  in  this 
reign  must  have  been  in  this  section. 

An  engraving  of  1822  shows  that  the  Champs 
lElysees  had  become  a  field  for  the  perform- 
ances of  mountebanks,  jugglers,  rope-walkers, 
stilt-walkers,  and  wandering  musicians. 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  341 

Louis  died  iinlamented.  He  had  been  fat 
when  first  he  entered  the  Tuileries;  his  manner 
of  life  was  not  one  calculated  to  reduce  adipose 
tissue.  His  subjects  joked  about  his  habits  by 
punning  upon  his  name,  calling  Louis  Dixhuit 
(Louis  XVIII)  Louis  des  Huitres  (Oyster 
Louis) .  He  was  the  last  king  to  die  in  Paris  or 
even  in  France,  and  the  last  to  be  buried  with  his 
kind  in  Saint  Denis. 

That  Charles  X,  Louis'  brother,  was  prepared 
to  follow  that  royal  custom  when  the  time  came 
seems  proven  by  his  immediate  return  to  the 
traditions  of  his  ancestors.  He  was  consecrated 
and  crowned  in  the  cathedral  at  Rheims  which 
had  witnessed  the  coronation  of  Clovis  and  that 
of  every  French  king  since  Philip  Augustus  in 
the  twelfth  century.  Like  the  Grand  Monarque 
he  "  touched  for  the  king's  evil,"  believed  in  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  and  thought  himself  all- 
wise  in  the  conduct  of  government  and  his  people 
all-foolish.  He  recalled  the  Jesuits  whom  Louis 
XV  had  banished  and  mulcted  the  masses  to 
make  restitution  to  the  royalists  whose  property 
had  been  confiscated  when  they  fled  from  Revolu- 
tionary France. 

Paris  forgot  that  she  had  loved  him  in  his  gay 
and  spendthrift  youth,  forgot  the  passing  amuse- 
ment of  his  coronation  festivities  in  the  Place  du 
Carrousel,  forgot  that  his  armies  were  winning 


342       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

some  successes  along  the  Mediterranean,  forgot 
everything  but  hatred  when  he  outraged  her  con- 
fidence by  disbanding  the  National  Guard,  on 
whose  loyalty  and  prudence  the  whole  city  relied. 

When  he  tried  to  force  through  the  legisla- 
ture a  bill  to  muzzle  the  press,  to  censor  all  other 
publications  and  to  forbid  freedom  of  speech  in 
the  universities,  that  body  flatly  refused  to  follow 
his  instructions.  So  determined  was  Charles  to 
have  his  own  way  that  this  rebuff  and  the  victories 
of  the  liberals  in  the  election  of  1830  taught  him 
no  lesson,  and  on  July  26  of  that  year  he  issued 
a  proclamation  which  brought  about  a  second 
Revolution.  He  declared  the  new  liberal  leg- 
islature dissolved  and  summoned  another  to  be 
chosen  by  the  votes  of  property-holders  only. 
He  appointed  a  Council  of  State  from  his  own 
sympathizers,  and  he  abolished  the  freedom  of  the 
press.  Thiers'  paper,  the  National,  and  the 
Courrier  issued  a  prompt  protest  against  these 
tyrannical  Ordinances,  and  were  as  promptly  sup- 
pressed. Crowds  gathered  before  the  newspaper 
offices  where  Thiers  showed  the  understanding 
and  the  grasp  of  the  situation  which  later  made 
him  prime  minister  under  Louis  Philippe  and 
first  president  of  the  Third  Republic. 

It  was  not  only  the  excitable  classes — the  right 
bank  artisans  and  the  left  bank  students — always 
ready  for  a  fight,  who  engaged  in  this  attempt  to 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  343 

overthrow  the  king;  the  whole  city  took  part, 
either  by  fighting  or  by  taking  into  their  houses 
fugitives  hard  pressed  by  the  royal  troops.  The 
city  was  heavily  garrisoned  and  the  citizens 
naturally  were  at  a  disadvantage  against  well- 
trained,  well-equipped  regulars.  They  fought, 
however,  with  the  ingenuity  and  the  joyousness 
which  always  has  marked  the  Parisian  when  he 
seized  such  opportunities.  The  narrowest  streets 
in  the  old  sections — just  north  of  the  City  Hall 
around  the  church  of  Saint  Merri,  near  the 
markets,  and  on  the  Cite — were  barricaded  and 
served  for  three  days  as  a  bloody  battleground. 
On  the  twenty-eighth  the  bell  on  the  City  Hall 
rang  out  its  summons  and  the  republican  tricolor 
side  by  side  with  the  black  flag  of  death  told  the 
crowd  better  than  words  for  what  they  were  to 
contend.  Until  the  afternoon  there  was  no  fiercer 
struggle  than  here  and  on  the  near-by  bridge  to 
the  Cite,  where  a  youth,  planting  the  tricolor  on 
the  top  of  the  middle  arch,  was  shot,  crying  as  he 
fell,  "  My  name  is  Arcole!  Avenge  my  death!  '* 
At  least  his  death  is  remembered,  for  the  bridge 
still  bears  his  name,  Arcole. 

Encouraged  by  their  successes  of  the  day,  the 
people  on  the  next  morning  marched  to  the 
Louvre  where  they  fought  and  fell  and  were 
buried  by  hundreds  beneath  Perrault's  colonnade. 
They  poured  through  the  Tuileries  as  in  the  days 


34J*       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

of  the  Revolution,  and  they  carried  the  throne 
from  the  Throne  Room  to  the  Place  de  la 
Bastille  where  they  burned  it  as  a  symbol  of 
tyranny.  By  way  of  expressing  their  feeling  for 
the  dignitaries  of  the  church  they  sacked  the 
archbishop's  palace  beside  Notre  Dame  on  whose 
towers  the  tricolor  floated.  When  night  fell 
twenty-four  hours  later  at  least  five  thousand 
Parisians  had  fallen  in  what  they  called,  neverthe- 
less, the  Three  '  Glorious  '  Days  of  July.  Paris 
and  Paris  alone  had  achieved  a  revolution  for  all 
France. 

To  commemorate  the  dead  the  July  Column, 
Liberty  crowned,  was  raised  on  the  site  of  the 
Bastille,  and  beneath  it  in  two  huge  vaults  lie 
scores  upon  scores  of  the  victims  of  the  over- 
throw. 

The  success  of  the  revolution  was  a  hint  which 
even  Charles  could  understand.  He  had  been  at 
Saint  Cloud  during  the  outbreak.  He  never  went 
back  to  Paris.  After  his  abdication  he  went  to 
England  and  died  in  Austria  six  years  later. 

The  political  revolution  was  not  the  only  sud- 
den change  of  the  year  1830.  On  the  25th  of 
February  occurred  the  "  Battle  of  Hernani " 
when  Victor  Hugo's  famous  play  in  which  he 
embodied  the  principles  of  the  new  "  romantic  " 
school  of  writing,  had  its  first  performance.  The 
classicists  rose  with  howls  and  hisses  at  the  very 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  345 

first  line,  in  which  was  an  infringement  of 
classical  rules,  and  the  evening  passed  tempes- 
tuously, even  with  an  interchange  of  blows.  The 
piece  was  allowed  other  hearings,  however,  and  at 
last  the  novelty  became  no  longer  a  novelty  but 
the  fashion. 

For  all  her  desire  for  a  republican  form  of 
government,  France,  during  the  great  Revolu- 
tion, had  not  been  so  fortunate  in  her  leaders  that 
she  was  prepared  now  to  elevate  an  ordinary 
citizen  to  the  headship,  the  more  as  there  was  no 
man  of  especial  distinction  with  the  exception  of 
the  too-aged  Lafayette.  It  was  he  who,  in  an 
interview  with  Louis  Philippe,  a  member  of  the 
Orleans  branch  of  the  royal  house,  expressed  the 
popular  wish  for  "  a  throne  surrounded  by  re- 
publican institutions." 

Louis  Philippe,  who  was  descended  from  a 
younger  brother  of  Louis  XI V,^  had  served  in  the 
Revolutionary  army,  but  had  become  entangled 
in  a  conspiracy  which  made  it  prudent  for  him  to 
join  his  royalist  friends  in  England.  The  Res- 
toration (1814)  permitted  his  return  and  he  had 
long  lived  the  life  of  a  quiet  bourgeois  dwelling 
in  a  Paris  suburb,  and  educating  his  children  in 
the  public  schools.  He  was  generally  liked  and  it 
needed  but  small  artificial  stimulation  to  start  a 
boom  for  his  candidacy.    On  the  night  of  the  30th 

1  See  Appendix. 


346       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

of  July  he  walked  in  from  Neuilly  and  went  to 
the  Palais  Royal.  Three  days  later  Lafayette 
presented  him  to  the  still  armed  and  still  mur- 
muring crowds  before  the  City  Hall,  and  on  the 
ninth  of  August  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  de- 
clared him  king  not  "  of  France  "  but  "  of  the 
French  "  to  emphasize  in  his  title  his  summons 
from  the  people. 

In  England  during  this  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  there  was  much  popular  upheaval  over 
the  suffrage  and  the  revolution  of  industry  by  the 
introduction  of  machinery.  France  was  equally 
disturbed,  but  over  political  problems.  Louis 
Philippe  apparently  had  been  the  choice  of  the 
people,  he  wore  the  tricolor  and  sang  the  "  Mar- 
seillaise "  beating  time  for  the  crowd  to  follow, 
and  the  provisions  of  his  government  were  liberal. 
Yet  he  received  cordial  support  only  from  the 
Constitutionalists.  He  was  opposed  by  the 
Bonapartists,  by  the  Legitimists,  who  wanted  a 
representative  of  the  Bourbons,  and  by  the  Re- 
publicans who  urged  a  government  like  Amer- 
ica's. To  the  latter  belonged  the  Paris  rabble 
and  they  never  let  pass  an  opportunity  to  stir  up 
trouble  for  the  king.  Only  a  year  after  his  acces- 
sion when  the  Legitimists  were  holding  a  service 
in  memory  of  the  Duke  of  Berry  in  the  church  of 
Saint  Germain  I'Auxerrois  the  mob  entered  the 
building  and  seized  the  communion  plate,  the 


THE    BOURSE. 
See  page  331. 


CHURCH     OF    THE    MADELEINE. 
See  page  331. 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  347 

crucifix  and  the  priests'  vestments  which  they 
threw  into  the  river  as  they  crossed  the  bridge 
to  the  Cite  where  they  first  sacked  and  then 
destroyed  the  archbishop's  palace/  Against  this 
demonstration  good-hearted  Louis  turned  the 
firemen's  hose  instead  of  the  soldier's  bayonets. 

This  riot  was  but  one  of  many  which  marked 
the  first  ten  years  of  Louis  Philippe's  reign. 
That  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  of  June,  1832,  is  well 
known  because  Victor  Hugo  described  it  in  "  Les 
Miserables.'^  The  king's  life  was  attempted  more 
than  once,  and  it  could  have  been  small  comfort 
to  him  to  feel  that  his  assassination  was  not  under- 
taken for  personal  reasons  but  because  he  repre- 
sented a  hated  party.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  the  "  Citizen  King  "  ceased  to  beat  time 
while  the  crowd  sang  the  "  Marseillaise,"  and  that 
he  told  an  English  friend  who  urged  him  to  save 
his  voice  in  the  open  air,  "  Don't  be  concerned. 
It's  a  long  time  since  I  did  more  than  move  my 
lips." 

Hated  by  the  Republican  rabble  the  king  was 
no  less  shunned  by  his  own  class,  the  nobility  of 
the  left  bank  faubourg  Saint  Germain.  They 
were  so  unwilling  to  frequent  a  court  made  up  of 
worthy  but  uninteresting  bourgeois  that  Louis  is 
said  to  have  remarked  that  it  was  easier  for  him 

'  Since  then  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  has  lived  near  the  In- 
valides. 


348       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

to  get  his  English  friends  from  across  the  Chan- 
nel to  dine  with  him  at  the  Tuileries  than  his 
French  friends  from  across  the  Seine. 

Added  to  the  other  troubles  of  this  time  was  the 
cholera  which  swept  Europe  in  1832.  Paris 
looked  on  it  as  something  of  a  joke  when  it  first 
broke  out,  several  maskers  at  a  ball  impersonat- 
ing Cholera  in  grisly  ugliness.  When  some  fifty 
dancers  were  attacked  by  the  disease  during  the 
evening  the  seriousness  of  the  situation  began  to 
be  understood.  Before  it  left  the  city  twenty 
thousand  people  had  died. 

Such  fearful  mortality  was  enough  to  give 
matter  for  thought  to  any  ruler,  and  enough  was 
known  then  about  sanitation  to  cause  Louis  to  set 
to  work  clearing  out  some  of  the  countless  narrow 
streets  with  their  unwholesome  houses  with  which 
the  older  parts  of  the  city  still  abounded,  though 
fifty-five  new  streets,  many  of  them  erasing 
former  ones,  had  been  opened  during  the  Restora- 
tion. The  Place  du  Trone,  now  the  Place  de  la 
Nation  was  completed.  The  handsome  columns, 
erected  just  before  the  Revolution,  mark  the 
city's  eastern  boundary.  They  are  surmounted 
by  statues  of  Philip  Augustus  and  Saint  Louis. 

Before  Louis  Philippe's  reign  ended  there  were 
some  eleven  hundred  streets  within  the  city 
limits,  and  the  extension  and  improvement  of 
the  lighting  system  increased  their  safety,  while 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  349 

they  were  made  beautiful  by  many  fountains. 
Of  these  the  best  known  is  that  in  memory  of 
Moliere.  It  is  erected  opposite  the  house  in 
which  the  great  dramatist  died,  and  was  made 
possible  by  one  of  those  public  subscriptions  by 
which  the  French  more  than  any  other  people  ex- 
press the  gratitude  of  the  masses  for  a  genius 
which  has  given  them  pleasm-e. 

The  water  service  for  domestic  use  was  poor, 
water-carriers  bringing  water  in  barrels  to  sub- 
scribers and  selling  it  in  the  street. 

The  present  fountains  of  the  Place  de  la  Con- 
corde are  also  of  this  period,  and  the  obelisk  of 
Luxor  which  the  pacha  of  Egypt  presented  to  the 
king  of  France,  was  brought  from  its  place  be- 
fore the  great  temple  of  ancient  Thebes  where  it 
had  stood  for  three  thousand  years  to  make  the 
central  ornament  of  the  same  huge  square. 

The  present  fortifications  of  Paris  date  from 
this  reign.  Thiers  built  them  during  his  ministry 
and  some  thirty-odd  years  later  he  had  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  it  was  through  his  efforts 
that  the  city  was  able  to  hold  out  for  nearly  five 
months  against  the  Prussians. 

Of  new  works  for  the  embellishment  of 
the  city  Louis  Philippe  began  but  few.  The 
one  church  of  interest  was  twin-spired  Sainte 
Clotilde,  an  accurate  reproduction  of  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  century  Gothic.    Though  initiat- 


350       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

ing  little  the  king  finished  several  important  un- 
dertakings of  his  predecessors.  One  of  these  was 
the  Palais  des  Beaux  Arts  where  many  American 
students  now  study  art;  another  was  the  church 
of  the  Madeleine,  and  still  another  the  Arc  de 
Triumphe  de  I'Etoile.  Notre  Dame  and  the 
Sainte  Chapelle  were  carefully  restored  to  their 
original  beauty  by  the  skillful  architect  and 
antiquarian,  Viollet-le-Duc,  and  the  Palais  de 
Justice  was  enlarged.  A  further  example  of  the 
preservation  of  old  buildings  for  the  benefit  of 
the  people  was  the  conversion  of  the  Hotel  Cluny 
into  a  museum  of  medieval  domestic  life,  and 
of  the  adjoining  Thermes  of  the  Roman  palace 
into  a  repository  of  Gallo-Roman  relics. 

With  bridges  and  railroads  increasing  the 
public  comfort,  a  vigorous  body  of  writers  adding 
to  the  literary  reputation  of  Paris,  and  the  dis- 
covery of  Daguerre  introducing  to  the  world 
photography  whose  developments  have  revolu- 
tionized many  occupations  and  made  possible 
many  others,  the  eighteen  years  of  Louis'  reign 
was  a  rich  period.  It  was  increasingly  turbulent, 
however,  as  each  riot  provoked  severe  rulings  in 
an  effort  to  prevent  further  trouble,  and  each 
access  of  severity  enraged  the  mob  more  than 
ever.  The  proletariat  had  no  vote,  and  the  suf- 
frage advances  across  the  Channel  served  only  to 
irritate  and  make  the  French  poor  feel  poorer 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  351 

than  ever  both  in  property  and  in  political  rights. 

The  crisis  came  (in  1848)  as  often  happens, 
over  a  comparatively  small  matter.  The  king 
forbade  a  banquet  of  his  opponents,  and  the  mob 
seized  upon  the  refusal  as  an  excuse  to  fight.  The 
National  Guards  should  have  served  as  a  buffer 
between  the  royal  garrison  and  the  rabble,  but  the 
rabble  stole  their  guns  and  the  worthy  bourgeois 
of  the  Guards  were  of  small  service  to  anybody. 
There  was  fighting  here  and  there  all  over  the 
city,  but  chiefly  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  boule- 
vard of  the  Temple.  There  seems  to  have  been 
no  especial  reason  in  these  skirmishes ;  the  coatless 
fought  the  wearers  of  coats  without  stopping  to 
inquire  their  political  belief.  Huge  crowds  col- 
lected along  the  rue  de  Rivoli  and  along  the 
quay,  hemming  into  the  Place  du  Carrousel  an- 
other throng  packed  almost  to  inmovability.  His 
wife  and  daughters  watching  him  anxiously 
from  the  windows,  the  king,  now  a  man  of 
seventy-five,  came  from  the  Tuileries,  mounted  a 
horse  and  moved  slowly  through  the  press.  Only 
an  occasional  voice  cried  "  Long  live  the  king," 
and  he  soon  returned  to  the  palace.  In  a  few 
minutes  word  flew  from  mouth  to  mouth  that 
Louis  Philippe  had  abdicated.  It  was  true.  An 
hour  and  a  half  later  he  left  the  Tuileries  never 
to  return. 

With    him  went  his   family,   leaving  behind 


352       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

them  all  their  personal  belongings.  At  once  a 
horde  of  roughs  took  possession  of  the  palace, 
slashing  pictures,  breaking  furniture,  breakfast- 
ing in  the  royal  dining  room,  and  sending  out  to 
buy  a  better  quality  than  the  king's  coffee  which 
they  drank  in  exquisite  Sevres  cups  taken  out 
through  the  broken  glass  of  a  locked  cabinet. 
The  royal  cellars  were  emptied  promptly.  The 
princesses'  dresses  adorned  the  sweethearts  of 
the  most  persistent  fighters.  Again,  as  in  1830, 
the  throne  went  up  in  smoke  after  every  rascal 
in  town  had  had  a  chance  to  test  the  softness  of 
its  cushions. 

At  the  Hotel  de  Ville  the  second  Republic  was 
proclaimed,  the  poet  Lamartine  at  its  head  for 
the  money  there  was  in  it,  it  is  said.  A  minor 
actor  who  was  in  a  general's  costume  at  a  dress 
rehearsal  and  who  put  his  head  out  of  a  theater 
window  to  see  the  cause  of  the  uproar  in  the 
street,  was  haled  forth,  set  upon  a  horse,  escorted 
to  the  City  Hall  and  introduced  to  the  nonde- 
script and  self-appointed  members  of  the  provi- 
sional government  there  gathered  as  "  governor 
of  the  Hotel  de  Ville."  They  accepted  him 
without  question  and  Lamartine  confirmed  him 
in  his  office  the  next  day  1 

A  republican  government  pure  and  simple, 
however,  did  not  satisfy  a  large  part  of  the 
citizens  of  Paris  who  were  extreme  socialists  and 


THE  LESSER  REVOLUTIONS  353 

demanded  that  the  state  provide  work  for  every- 
body. So  insistent  were  they  that  Lamartine 
estabhshed  National  Workshops  and  the  actual 
development  of  the  theory  proved  more  convinc- 
ing than  any  possible  argument.  Thousands  of 
people  were  soon  enrolled.  Many  proved  idlers, 
many  were  ignorant,  much  of  the  output  was 
poor;  yet,  such  as  it  was,  it  seriously  disorganized 
trade  and  so  flooded  the  market  that  prices  went 
down  and  wages  were  forced  to  follow.  The  men 
who  received  $1.00  a  day  at  first  were  reduced 
in  a  few  months  to  $1.20  a  week,  while  the 
government  was  saddled  with  a  debt  of  $3,000,- 
000  and  with  hundreds  of  citizens  less  than  ever 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves  after  this  period 
of  what  was  practically  living  on  charity.  The 
solid  citizens  demanded  an  immediate  change, 
the  government  insisted  that  a  larger  number  of 
the  beneficiaries  should  either  seek  other  work  or 
go  into  the  army.  Again  Paris  was  a  battle  field 
during  three  days  when  many  of  the  streets  were 
literally  ankle-deep  in  blood.  The  Parisians 
could  build  a  barricade  right  dexterously  by  this 
time  and  bourgeois  and  rabble  killed  each  other 
heartily  in  the  most  pitiable  sort  of  civil  war. 
Archbishop  Affre,  who  went  in  person  to  the  fau- 
bourg Saint  Antoine  to  use  his  influence  with  the 
fighters,  was  mortally  wounded.     His  torn  and 


354       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

blood-stained    garments    are    preserved    in    the 
sacristy  of  Notre  Dame. 

Early  in  July  an  open-air  mass  in  memory  of 
the  victims  was  solemnized  at  the  foot  of  the 
obelisk,  but  it  did  not  mean  that  peace  was 
established,  and  for  a  few  months  more  the 
country  quarreled  on  under  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment until  Louis  Napoleon  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  Republic  in  December,  1848. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON 

LOUIS  NAPOLEON  ^  was  the  son  of 
Hortense,  Josephine's  daughter,  who  had 
been  forced  to  marry  Napoleon  I's 
brother,  Louis,  who  disliked  her  as  much  as  she 
did  him.  By  the  time  of  Napoleon's  downfall 
they  were  divorced  and  young  Louis'  life  from 
his  sixth  to  his  twenty-first  year  was  one  of  con- 
stant change  as  he  traveled  from  one  place  to 
another  with  his  mother  who  was  not  welcomed 
as  a  resident  of  their  towns  by  many  small  officials 
afraid  of  their  political  heads.  This  long  period 
spent  out  of  the  country  of  his  birth  gave  Louis 
the  accent  which  provoked  the  passage  at  arms 
with  Bismark.  Wishing  to  be  polite  to  the  great 
German  he  remarked  blandly,  "  I  never  have 
heard  a  stranger  speak  French  as  you  do;  "  to 
which  Bismark  promptly  responded,  "  I  never 
have  heard  a  Frenchman  speak  French  as  you 
do." 

When  a  man  grown  Louis  Napoleon  became 
a  soldier  of  fortune.  He  fought  against  the 
pope ;  he  tried  to  get  up  a  revolution  for  his  own 
benefit  in  the  garrison  at  Strasburg;  he  entered 

'  See  Appendix. 
355 


356       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

France  from  the  sea  near  Boulogne,  again  with 
no  success;  he  was  captured  and  imprisoned  for 
six  years,  escaping  in  the  clothes  of  a  workman. 
It  was  only  after  the  abdication  of  Louis  Philippe 
that  he  dared  to  appear  in  Paris.  While  he  was 
made  a  member  of  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
and  was  wire-pulling  to  secure  his  election  to  the 
presidency  he  was  so  poor  that  a  street  vender, 
a  woman  well-known  because  of  her  skill  in  get- 
ting about  on  two  wooden  legs,  offered  him 
money  from  her  savings.  When  his  star  was  in 
the  ascendant  he  offered  her  an  annuity.  She  re- 
fused it,  saying  that  he  wouldn't  take  her  money 
and  so  she  wouldn't  take  his.  Beranger,  the 
"  people's  poet,"  and  Victor  Hugo  believed  in 
Bonaparte  and  used  their  influence  in  his  behalf. 
The  election  in  1848  put  an  end  to  Louis' 
poverty  but  his  appetite  for  power  grew  by  what 
it  fed  on.  The  new  constitution  decreed  that  a 
president  could  not  be  a  candidate  for  reelection 
until  four  years  had  elapsed  after  his  first  term 
of  office.  This  arrangement  did  not  suit  Louis's 
ambition  and  in  1851  he  followed  the  great  Na- 
poleon's example  in  executing  a  coup  d'etat.  It 
meant  more  barricades  and  more  slaughter  in  the 
Paris  streets,  but  it  disposed  of  his  enemies  and 
left  him  free  to  secure  yet  another  constitution 
which  lengthened  the  president's  term  to  ten 
years.    As  with  the  great  Napoleon,  the  people 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON  357 

elected  him  emperor  for  life  only  a  year  later. 
He  took  the  title  of  Napoleon  III. 

The  cholera  ravaged  France  for  many  months 
during  the  early  part  of  Louis  Napoleon's 
presidency.  On  one  day  there  were  six  hundred 
and  eighty  deaths  in  Paris  alone.  Yet  neither 
the  epidemic  nor  republican  simplicity  prevented 
many  elaborate  public  functions.  In  the  autumn 
of  1848  the  Palais  Bourbon  was  the  scene  of 
many  balls  with  a  somewhat  motley  array  of 
guests.  It  was  currently  reported  in  the  city 
that  before  every  ball  there  was  such  a  washing 
and  starching  as  never  had  been  known  before  in 
the  northern  and  eastern  parts  of  the  city,  and 
that  the  tradesmen  of  those  sections  were  ac- 
customed to  say  with  an  air  of  pride,  "  No,  we 
have  nothing  in  ladies'  white  kid  gloves  to-day 
except  in  small  sizes — seven  and  under." 

In  1849  on  the  anniversary  of  the  great  Na- 
poleon's death,  a  memorial  mass  was  solemnized 
at  the  Invalides,  the  old  uniforms  of  the  veterans 
adding  their  pathos  to  the  impressive  scene 
as  the  officers  knelt  while  Louis  visited  the  tomb 
of  his  illustrious  predecessor.  On  the  first  an- 
niversary of  Louis'  election  a  splendid  banquet 
at  the  Hotel  de  Ville  expressed  the  people's 
satisfaction.  Three  years  later,  on  New  Year's 
Day,  the  guns  of  the  Invalides  fired  ten  shots 
for  every  million  of  votes  that  assured  Louis' 


358       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

position  for  ten  years  more.  A  Te  Deum  of 
gratitude  was  sung  at  Notre  Dame,  the  choir 
chanting  "  T>omine,  salvum  fac  praesidentem 
nostrum  Napoleonem."  The  religious  celebra- 
tion was  followed  by  a  ball  given  by  the  Prefect 
of  the  Seine  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville. 

Realizing  that  the  chances  of  success  in  Paris 
upheavals  usually  were  with  the  side  which  the 
army  favored  Louis  did  his  best  to  make  himself 
popular  with  the  soldiers.  In  the  spring  of  this 
same  year  a  series  of  brilliant  festivals  gave  them 
recognition — a  distribution  of  flags  on  the  Field 
of  Mars,  a  ball  in  honor  of  the  army,  a  banquet 
at  the  Tuileries  to  the  officers,  and  a  banquet  of 
twenty- four  hundred  covers  to  the  students  of 
the  Military  School. 

The  proclamation  of  the  empire  was  hailed 
in  Paris  with  enthusiastic  demonstrations.  The 
citizens  gave  Bonaparte  an  almost  solid  support 
(208,615  votes  out  of  270,710),  decorated  the 
city  with  such  inscriptions  as  "  Ave  Caesar  Im- 
perator,"  and  with  elaborate  illuminations.  Na- 
poleon's entry  into  the  city  was  a  spectacle  such 
as  the  Parisians  always  have  loved.  Heading  a 
splendid  array  of  soldiers  he  rode  into  town  from 
Saint  Cloud,  ten  miles  out,  and,  hailed  by  the 
guns  of  all  Paris,  he  entered  the  city  under  the 
Arc  de  Triumphe  de  I'Etoile,  and  then  went 
down  the  Champs  Elysees  to  the  Tuileries.    The 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON     359 

new  emperor's  decision  to  have  no  formal  corona- 
tion but  to  give  its  cost,  $50,000,  to  hospitals  and 
orphanages  throughout  France,  warmly  endeared 
him  to  his  subjects. 

The  Exposition  of  1855  was  a  drawing  card 
for  Paris.  By  the  side  of  the  monumental  affairs 
into  which  these  exhibits  have  grown  the  arrange- 
ments seem  simplicity  itself.  Yet  Queen  Vic- 
toria, Prince  Albert  and  the  royal  children  spent 
a  happy  week  visiting  the  Palais  de  1' Industrie 
and  being  entertained  by  plays  at  Saint  Cloud, 
fireworks  and  a  ball  at  Versailles,  a  ball  at  the 
City  Hall,  a  review  of  troops  on  the  Field  of 
Mars.  When  the  queen  drove  to  visit  Notre 
Dame  and  the  Sainte  Chapelle  the  decorated 
streets  were  lined  with  enthusiastic  crowds. 

Like  his  great  predecessor  Napoleon  Ill's 
vision  saw  a  noble  Paris,  and  at  once  he  set  about 
improvements  which  would  beautify  the  city,  give 
work  to  the  poor,  make  the  bourgeois  forget  his 
limitation  of  their  power  in  the  municipality,  and 
compensate  the  suburbs  now  included  within  the 
city  limits  for  the  increase  of  their  taxes. 

Paris  no  longer  had  a  mayor,  but  as  to-day, 
two  prefects,  one  *'  of  the  Seine  "  and  the  other 
"  of  police."  Haussmann,  the  prefect  of  the 
Seine,  was  a  man  amply  fitted  to  carry  out  the 
emperor's  plans,  and  it  is  to  him  that  the  city  owes 
much  of  the  openness  which  is  one  of  her  greatest 


360       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

beauties  and  benefits.  His  was  the  idea  of  laying 
out  streets  radiating  from  a  central  point  as  do 
those  around  the  Arch  of  the  Star.  This  diagonal 
arrangement  permits  not  only  quick  passage  from 
one  part  of  the  city  to  another,  but  allows  a  small 
body  of  men  and  a  few  cannon  to  hold  a  com- 
manding position.  Napoleon  probably  had  the 
habits  of  the  Paris  mob  in  mind  when  he  ordered 
this  plan  and  the  asphalt  surface  which  is  far  less 
useful  for  missiles  than  are  paving  stones.  The 
rue  de  Rivoli  was  carried  on  eastward  partly  do- 
ing away  with  an  unsavory  neighborhood  which 
crowded  closely  upon  the  Louvre;  a  long  boule- 
vard called  "  de  Strasbourg  "  and  "  de  Sebas- 
topol "  swept  northward  from  the  Seine  and 
southward  across  the  Cite  to  join  the  boulevard 
Saint  Michel  on  the  right  bank.  In  all  twenty- 
two  new  thoroughfares  were  opened  and  three 
bridges.  Between  the  Place  du  Chatelet  and  the 
Hotel  de  Ville  was  the  old  tower  of  Saint 
Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.  It  was  restored  to  its 
former  perfection  and  surrounded  by  one  of  the 
small  parks  which  are  the  city's  best  gifts  to  the 
poor  and  for  which  she  utilizes  every  available 
spot.  A  new  Hotel  Dieu  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Parvis  de  Notre  Dame  replaced  the  ancient 
building  on  the  south  side  of  the  same  square, 
and  did  a  further  good  work  in  wiping  out  many 
wretched  old  streets. 


MiA 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON  361 

Remembering  Napoleon  I's  intention  with  re- 
gard to  the  Louvre  the  emperor  completed  the 
long  delayed  project  of  joining  the  Tuileries  and 
the  older  palace.  On  the  side  of  the  Seine  he 
built  the  entrance  to  the  Place  du  Carrousel,  the 
connecting  link  between  Henry  IV's  unfinished 
gallery  and  Catherine  de  Medicis';  on  the  north 
side  he  swept  away  the  remaining  tangle  of  small 
streets  adjoining  the  rue  de  Rivoli,  thereby 
enlarging  the  Place  du  Carrousel  to  its  present 
size  and  permitting  the  building  of  three  quad- 
rangles to  match  the  three  on  the  south/  which  are 
partly  of  his  construction.  The  architecture  is 
massive,  elaborate,  over-decorated,  yet,  taken  all 
in  all,  suj^erb.  Its  heavy  magnificence  lessens  our 
regret  at  the  loss  of  the  Tuileries  which  completed 
the  rectangle  at  the  west,  for  those  who  remem- 
ber it  say  that  the  smaller  palace  was  over- 
powered by  the  imposing  "  New  Louvre." 

Several  new  churches  added  to  the  adornment 
of  the  city  under  the  empire.  One  of  these,  Trin- 
ity, renaissance  in  style,  is  approached  by  a 
"  rampe  "  somewhat  recalling  that  of  Saint  Vin- 
cent-de-Paul. Another  church,  dedicated  to  Saint 
Augustin,  is  in  the  Byzantine  style,  and  is  in- 
geniously though  not  always  acceptably  adapted 
to  the  limitations  of  a  small  triangular  space. 

Among  the  improvements  were  the  buildings  of 

1  See  plan,  Chapter  XXIL 


362       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

the  present  Halles  Centrales  on  the  age-old  spot 
where  markets  have  served  Paris.  An  early- 
morning  visit  to  the  Halles  is  an  object  lesson  on 
the  distribution  of  food  for  a  large  city.  The 
crowd  is  terrific,  the  volubility  ear-splitting. 
Certain  characteristic  stalls  interest  the  traveler, 
as,  for  example,  that  where  broken  food  from 
hotels  and  restaurants  is  sold  for  two  sous  a  plate. 

To  this  time  belongs  the  new  building — on 
the  Cite  now — for  the  Tribunal  of  Commerce; 
enlargements  of  the  National  Library  and  of  the 
Bank  of  France;  the  construction  of  two  theaters 
on  the  Place  du  Chatelet,  one  leased  now  by 
Sarah  Bernhardt,  and  of  the  Opera.  This  is  huge 
and  elaborate  in  renaissance  style,  a  building 
much  criticized  but  also  much  admired,  especially 
for  its  staircase  and  for  its  decorative  frescos  and 
bronzes.  It  is  the  home  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Music. 

The  fountain  showing  the  valiant  figure  of 
Saint  Michel  facing  the  bridge  at  the  corner 
of  the  boidevard  Saint  Michel,  has  a  position 
like  that  of  the  Moliere  fountain,  making  a  grace- 
ful and  harmonious  decoration  for  the  end  of  a 
house  lying  in  the  acute  angle  between  two  meet- 
ing streets. 

The  extension  of  the  city's  water  supply  was 
the  more  appreciated  because  it  was  belated. 
Twelve    thousands    gas    lamps    made  a    much- 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON  363 

needed  illumination.  Two  railway  stations  added 
a  convenient  public  service. 

Just  outside  the  fortifications  is  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne,  originally  a  forest,  but  now  developed 
as  a  park,  retaining  its  naturalness  and  charm 
with  the  addition  of  good  roads,  and  attractive 
tea-houses. 

Finally,  the  lovely  Pare  Monceau  was  laid  out 
to  please  the  prosperous  inhabitants  of  the  re- 
cently developed  quarter  near  the  Arc  de  I'Eitoile, 
and  an  old  quarry  was  ingeniously  converted 
into  a  thing  of  seemingly  natural  beauty  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poorer  people  of  Belleville 
in  the  north-eastern  part  of  the  city.  In  1861 
the  population  of  Paris  was  1,667,841. 

Yet  even  all  these  public  works  and  the  bril- 
liancy of  the  not  at  all  exclusive  court  which 
Napoleon  and  his  wife,  Eugenie  (whom  he  had 
married  with  magnificent  ceremony  at  Notre 
Dame  in  1853),  held  at  the  Tuileries,  could  not 
entirely  calm  the  restless  and  not  yet  satisfied 
Parisians.  To  the  poorer  classes  "  empire  "  did 
not  ring  as  true  as  "  republic."  Napoleon  boldly 
laid  the  question  of  the  empire  before  the  people 
of  France  once  more,  and  once  more  they  re- 
turned a  handsome  vote  in  his  support,  but  Paris 
was  unconvinced.  She  cast  184,000  Nos  against 
139,000  Yeses. 

As  must  always  happen  in  connection  with 


364       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

foreign  affairs  the  emperor's  attitude  provoked 
hostility  as  well  as  approval.  There  were  op- 
ponents of  the  Crimean  War  as  well  as  advocates ; 
there  were  adverse  critics  of  the  treaty  with 
Austria  which  closed  the  war  which  France 
undertook  in  behalf  of  Italy.  Long-continued 
friction  with  Germany  had  brought  about  a  gen- 
eral wish  for  war.  Napoleon  planned  to  secure 
his  own  popularity  by  entering  upon  a  struggle 
which  he  knew  would  be  approved  by  the 
majority  of  his  subjects.  Paris  was  wildly 
enthusiastic,  crying  "  On  to  Berlin  I "  regardless 
of  the  fact  that  the  army  was  almost  entirely 
unprepared. 

A  trivial  incident  furnished  the  excuse  and  the 
emperor  in  person  invaded  Germany,  but  the  list 
of  encounters  was  almost  entirely  a  list  of  de- 
feats and  the  Prussian  army  pressed  the  French 
forces  back  into  their  own  country.  Paris  was 
so  furious  at  the  realization  of  what  this  inva- 
sion might  mean  that  it  is  said  that  Napoleon 
never  would  have  passed  through  the  city  alive 
if  he  had  returned  then. 

The  battle  of  Sedan,  fought  on  the  first  of 
September,  1870,  not  only  was  an  overwhelming 
defeat,  but  there  the  emperor  was  taken  prisoner. 
Never  again  did  he  see  the  city  he  had  worked  so 
hard  to  beautify.     After  he  was  released    (in 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON  8G5 

1871)    he  went  to  England  where  he  died  in 
1873. 

News  of  the  battle  reached  Paris  on  the  fourth 
of  September  and  produced  such  utter  con- 
sternation that  the  mob  was  frightened  into  com- 
parative quiet.  A  great  crowd,  however,  eager 
and  determined,  entered  the  Legislature  where 
the  deputies  were  in  session  and  demanded  the 
abolition  of  the  empire.  Jules  Favre,  Gambetta, 
Jules  Simon  and  several  other  deputies  of  the 
"  opposition  "  party,  led  the  crowd  to  the  City 
Hall,  formed  a  provisional  government,  and  de- 
clared the  Third  Republic. 

The  empress,  meanwhile,  who  had  only  too 
good  reason  to  fear  the  possible  temper  of  the 
Paris  mob,  had  heard  the  news  in  the  Tuileries 
and  took  instant  flight.  Accompanied  only  by 
one  lady  and  by  the  Austrian  and  Italian 
ambassadors,  she  traversed  the  whole  length  of 
the  Louvre  to  its  eastern  end.  As  she  came  out 
on  the  street  facing  the  church  of  Saint  Germain 
I'Auxerrois  she  was  recognized  by  a  small  boy 
who  called  her  name.  This  recognition  so  ter- 
rified the  ambassadors  that  they  did  not  stop  to 
find  the  carriage  that  was  waiting  for  them,  but 
pushed  the  empress  and  her  companion  into  an 
ordinary  cab,  and  called  to  the  cabman  no  more 
definite  direction  than  "  To  Boulevard  Hauss- 
mann."     The  two  frightened  women  had  not 


366       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

even  a  handbag  with  them  and  not  so  much  as 
their  cab  fare.  Fortunately  the  empress  hap- 
pened to  think  of  her  dentist,  an  American  named 
Evans.  They  drove  to  his  house  and  through  his 
help  managed  to  leave  the  city  and  to  escape 
to  England.    There  Eugenie  still  lives. 

The  new  government  represented  to  the  Prus- 
sians that  the  war  had  been  the  emperor's  affair, 
and  that  Prussia  had  declared  that  she  was  fight- 
ing the  imperial  idea.  The  enemy  refused  to 
grant  peace,  however,  and  Paris  was  besieged 
from  September  19,  1870  to  January  30,  1871. 
Several  battles  around  the  city  resulted  in  de- 
feat for  the  French  and  the  loss  of  some  towns. 
Marshal  Bazaine  surrendered  the  "  army  of 
Metz  "  without  a  struggle.  The  king  of  Prussia 
made  the  palace  at  Versailles  his  headquarters 
and  from  it  directed  the  bombardment. 

Within  Paris  suffering  increased  sadly  during 
the  four  months  and  a  half  of  the  siege.  Outside 
supplies  of  fuel  and  food  were  cut  off  and  the 
city's  stores  ran  very  low,  though  reports  of  peace 
were  apt  to  bring  out  collections  which  were  being 
kept  in  hiding  to  secure  high  prices  when  the 
great  pinch  should  come.  The  trees  in  the  parks 
were  cut  down  for  fuel  and  warmth.  Bomb- 
proof cellars  were  at  premium. 

Just  as  during  the  siege  of  Henry  IV,  animals 
not  usually  eaten  were  now  slaughtered  for  food. 


PARIS  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON  367 

Horace  Vernet,  the  famous  artist,  mournfully 
complained  to  a  friend,  "  They  have  taken  away 
my  saddle  horse  to  eat  him — and  I've  had  him 
twenty  years!  "  From  which  it  is  a  fair  assump- 
tion that  the  steaks  which  he  provided  were  not  all 
tenderloin.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  while  dishes 
made  from  the  smaller  animals  were  rather 
fancied  so  that  when  the  siege  was  over  dogs  and 
cats  were  scarce,  there  were  left  thirtj^  thousand 
horses,  which  would  seem  to  prove  that  even  the 
starving  do  not  like  tough  meat.  Etiquette  for- 
bade inquiry  of  one's  hostess  as  to  the  nature  of 
any  dish  served  at  a  dinner,  but  it  was  entirely 
de  rigueur  to  compliment  it  after  partaking. 
Rat  pies  came  to  be  considered  a  real  delicacy. 
Toward  the  end  the  animals  in  the  Zoological 
Gardens  fell  victims  to  the  town's  necessities.  A 
camel  was  sold  for  $800  and  netted  a  good  deal 
more  than  that  for  the  restaui'ant  proprietor  who 
bought  him. 

A  final  brave  sortie  met  with  such  complete 
defeat  that  it  was  clear  that  the  city  must  sur- 
render. The  provisional  government  yielded, 
promising  to  give  up  all  Alsace  and  half  of 
Lorraine,  to  pay  an  indemnit)^  of  a  billion  dollars 
and,  crown  of  bitterness  for  Paris,  to  permit 
the  hostile  army  to  take  possession  of  the  city. 

On  the  first  of  March  the  Prussians  entered 
from  the  west.     They  found  massed  before  the 


368       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Triumphal  Arch  of  the  Star  two  thousand 
school  boys.  Their  spokesman,  a  lad  of  twelve, 
approached  the  commander. 

*'  Sir,"  he  said,  bringing  his  hand  to  his  cap  in 
salute,  "  we  ask  that  you  will  not  lead  your  men 
under  our  arch.  If  you  do,"  he  added  firmly, 
"  it  will  be  over  our  bodies." 

The  troops  made  a  circuit. 

It  was  only  three  days  that  the  Prussians 
remained  in  Paris,  but  during  that  time  the  city 
mourned  openly.  All  the  shops  were  closed, 
all  business  was  discontinued.  When  the  enemy 
left  everything  they  had  touched  was  treated  as 
if  defiled.  It  is  said  that  because  a  Prussian 
soldier  had  been  seen  to  leap  over  one  of  the 
chains  which  swing  from  post  to  post  to  keep  a 
space  clear  around  the  Arch  of  the  Star  a  new 
chain  was  substituted. 

The  pride  of  Paris  was  humbled  grievously. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

PARIS  OF  TO-DAY 

WHEN  the  siege  of  Paris  came  to  an  end 
and  the  German  troops  were  withdrawn 
the  provisional  government  which  had 
been  making  its  headquarters  at  Bordeaux  re- 
moved to  Versailles.  The  violent  element  in  Paris 
which  had  given  Louis  Philippe  so  much  trouble 
had  increased  both  in  numbers  and  in  strength  of 
feeling  during  the  third  quarter  of  the  century. 
Now  these  radicals  asserted  that  Thiers,  the 
head  of  the  provisional  government,  had  betrayed 
France  to  the  enemy,  and  they  won  to  their  way 
of  thinking  the  Central  Committee  of  the  usually 
conservative  National  Guard.  From  the  City 
Hall  they  directed  the  election  of  a  new  city 
goverment,  the  Commune  of  Paris,  which  held 
itself  independent  of  the  Assembly  at  Versailles 
and  defied  it. 

Just  a  month  after  the  hated  Prussians  had 
left  Paris  the  commimists  made  a  sortie  toward 
Versailles.  As  a  natural  reaction  the  Versailles 
government  invested  the  city,  and  Frenchmen 
were  pitted  against  Frenchmen  as  in  the  days 
when  Henry  IV  was  besieging  his  own  capital 

369 


370       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

town.  Nor  was  the  conflict  merely  between 
the  people  inside  and  the  people  outside — 
within  Paris  there  was  a  constant  struggle 
between  the  conservatives  and  the  communists 
and  even  among  the  communists  themselves. 
The  conservatives  disapproved  of  the  drastic 
social  changes  made  by  the  new  government 
in  closing  the  churches,  and  dispersing  some 
of  the  religious  orders,  as  well  as  of  their 
confiscations  of  property  on  slight  warrant  and 
their  onslaught  upon  monuments  of  sentimental 
and  artistic  value,  such  as  the  Vendome  Column. 
The  communists,  on  the  other  hand,  were  torn  by 
internal  dissensions  and  their  constant  quarrels 
brought  about  the  usual  weakness  resulting  from 
poor  team  work. 

Ferocity  never  failed  them,  however.  Con- 
structive measures  were  postponed;  revenge, 
never.  No  sufficent  excuse  ever  has  been  offered 
for  their  massacres  of  hostages,  good  Archbishop 
Darboy  among  them;  none  for  the  senseless 
orgy  of  destruction  with  which,  after  a  two 
months'  struggle,  they  recognized  their  defeat 
by  the  government  troops  under  Marshal  Mac- 
Mahon.  When  the  soldiers  entered  Paris  their 
first  work  was  the  extinguishing  of  the  fires 
which  the  communists  had  set  in  a  hundred 
places.  Men  and  women,  urged  by  hatred  and 
fanaticism,     piled     kegs     of    gunpowder     into 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  371 

churches,  even  into  Notre  Dame,  relic  and  rec- 
ord of  centuries,  and  poured  petroleum  upon 
the  flames  devouring  the  Palace  of  Justice,  the 
Sainte  Chapelle,  the  library  of  the  Louvre,  the 
Luxembourg  palace,  the  Palais  Royal.  The 
houses  on  the  rue  Royale  were  a  mass  of  broken 
brick.  The  Ministry  of  Finance  on  the  rue  de 
Rivoli  was  so  injured  that  it  was  torn  down,  to 
be  replaced  by  a  hotel.  Three  hundred  years  of 
historical  association  did  not  avail  to  save  the 
palace  of  the  Tuileries  whose  ruins  were  con- 
sidered not  sufficient  to  be  restored.  The  Plotel 
de  Ville  was  a  mere  shell  and  required  practically 
entire  rebuilding.  Property  amounting  to  a  hun- 
dred millions  of  dollars  was  destroyed,  while  the 
historical  and  sentimental  value  of  many  of  the 
buildings  cannot  be  computed. 

The  communists  were  as  reckless  with  their 
own  lives  as  with  the  buildings.  Some  two 
thousand  persons — women  and  children  as  well 
as  men — fell  in  the  contest  with  the  govern- 
ment. The  last  struggle  was  in  the  cemetery  of 
Pere  Lachaise  whose  tombs  could  serve  only  as 
temporary  potection  against  shell  and  shot  from 
the  rash  fighters  who  were  soon  to  need  a  final 
resting-place.  It  was  only  after  the  execution 
of  many  of  the  insurgent  leaders  that  Marshal 
MacMahon  brought  about  a  semblance  of  peace. 

With  returning  quiet  all  France  turned  its 


372       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

attention  to  securing  the  payment  of  the  war 
indemnity  of  a  biUion  dollars  due  to  Prussia. 
Until  that  indebtedness  was  cleared  off  the  hated 
uniform  of  the  army  of  occupation  was  omni- 
present. So  eager  were  the  French  to  rid  them- 
selves of  this  sight  that  every  peasant  went  into 
his  "  stocking  "  or  tapped  his  mattress  bank  until 
the  necessary  amount  was  subscribed  many  times 
over.  Two  years  and  a  half  after  the  capitula- 
tion of  Paris  not  a  German  soldier  was  left  in 
the  country.  There  could  be  no  stronger  testi- 
mony to  the  national  thrift  fostered  by  the  pinch 
of  the  pre-Revolutionary  days  and  so  alive  to- 
day that  the  French  are  looked  upon  as  the 
readiest  financiers  in  Europe,  prepared  to  invest 
in  anything  from  a  Panama  Canal  to  a  New 
York  gratte-ciel  (skyscraper). 

The  terms  of  the  peace  with  Germany  re- 
quired the  surrender  of  one-half  of  the  border 
province  of  Lorraine  and  the  whole  of  Alsace. 
It  was  a  bitter  day  not  only  for  these  districts  but 
for  the  whole  country  when  the  Germans  took 
possession  of  the  ceded  territory.  Fifty  thousand 
people  left  their  property  behind  and  went  over 
into  France  rather  than  lose  the  name  of  French- 
men. Many  came  to  America.  Now,  forty 
years  later,  the  memory  of  the  loss  is  not  dulled, 
and  the  statue  of  Strasbourg  in  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde  wears  perpetual  mourning. 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  373 

Many  have  been  the  problems  faced  by  France 
since  the  Franco-Prussian  war.  Political  adjust- 
ment has  been  of  first  importance,  of  course,  but 
Paris  has  had  her  own  questions  to  answer,  and, 
because  of  her  cosmopolitanism,  her  solutions 
have  been  of  interest  to  the  whole  world.  Much 
time  and  thought  have  been  spent  on  the  repairs 
required  by  the  excesses  of  the  communists.  The 
rebuilding  of  the  City  Hall  on  the  same  spot  on 
which  it  had  stood  for  five  hundred  years  and  in 
the  style  which  Francis  I  initiated  three  centu- 
ries before,  was  a  task  on  which  Paris  lavished 
thought  and  money.  The  exterior  is  a  finely 
harmonious  example  of  renaissance.  The  mural 
paintings  of  the  interior  are  a  record  of  the  work 
of  the  best  French  artists  of  the  last  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  They  are  enhanced  by 
heavily  handsome  gildings  and  by  chandeliers 
of  glittering  crystal. 

As  a  whole,  however,  the  city  has  put  more 
expenditure  into  the  perfecting  of  public  utilities, 
the  beautifying  of  streets  and  the  construction  of 
parks — works  of  use  to  the  many — than  into  the 
erection  of  buildings  of  less  general  service.  The 
panorama  which  make  the  frontispiece  of  this 
volume  shows  the  care  with  which  pavements  and 
curbs  and  tree-guards  are  ordered.  A  small 
tricycle  sweeper  is  1912's  latest  device  for  remov- 
ing any  last  reproach  of  Lutetia's  mud — a  re- 


374       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

proach  formulated  to-day  only  by  Parisians  made 
fastidious  by  a  century  of  cleanliness. 

The  panorama  shows  also  the  arrangement  of 
the  quays  and  the  orderliness  which  makes  them 
possible  in  the  very  center  of  the  city,  even  when 
there  is  discharged  upon  them  huge  loads  of 
freight  brought  from  the  sea  by  the  strings  of 
barges  (seen  in  the  picture  of  the  Eiffel  Tower 
opposite  page  360)  which  are  moved  by  a  tug  and 
a  chain-towing  device. 

In  some  parts  of  this  city  of  three  million  in- 
habitants the  quays  disclose  scenes  that  are  al- 
most rural.  Under  the  fluttering  leaves  of  a 
slender  tree  a  rotund  housewife  is  making  over  a 
mattress,  exchanging  witticisms  with  a  near-by 
vender  of  little  cakes.  Not  far  off  the  owner  of 
a  poodle  is  engaging  his  attention  while  a  pro- 
fessional dog  clipper  is  decorating  him  with  an 
outfit  of  collar  and  cuffs  calculated  to  rouse  envy 
in  the  breasts  of  less  favored  caniches. 

When  the  hero  of  an  old  English  novel  orders 
his  servant  to  call  a  "  fly  "  we  wonder  whether 
the  misnamed  vehicle  which  responds  has  been 
christened  from  the  verb  or  the  noun.  There  is 
no  doubt  in  Paris  as  to  the  origin  of  the  "  fly 
boats  "  on  the  Seine.  These  busy  little  travelers 
are  of  insect  origin — they  are  bateaux  mouches. 

What  these  boats  are  on  the  river  the  fiacres 
have  been  on  land.     These  small  open  carriages 


p^ 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  375 

are  now  being  replaced  by  motor  taxis.  The  use 
of  the  meters  on  the  horse-propelled  vehicles  as 
well  as  on  the  machines  has  deprived  the  tourist 
of  one  of  the  daily  excitements  of  his  visit — the 
heated  argument  with  the  driver  concerning  his 
charge.  Another  change  which  has  been  con- 
summated since  1913  began  is  the  passing  of  the 
horse-drawn  omnibus  with  its  "  imperial  "  or  roof 
seats,  from  whose  inexpensive  vantage  many 
travelers  have  considered  that  they  secured  their 
best  view  of  the  city  streets.  The  two  subway 
systems  have  many  excellent  points,  not  least  of 
which  is  a  method  of  ventilation  which  makes  a 
summer's  day  trip  below  ground  a  relief  rather 
than  a  seeming  excursion  on  the  crust  of  the 
infernal  regions. 

The  Champs  Elysees  is  thought  to  offer  the 
finest  metropolitan  vista  in  the  world,  when  the 
Arc  de  Triomphe  de  I'Etoile  is  seen  across  the 
Place  de  la  Concorde  from  the  Tuileries  gardens, 
over  two  miles  away. 

Such  vistas  are  frequent  in  Paris,  offering  a 
"  point  of  view  "  in  which  a  handsome  building 
or  monument  finds  its  beauty  enhanced.  The 
regularity  of  the  skyline  adds  to  this  effect.  By 
a  municipal  regulation  no  fa9ade  may  be  higher 
than  the  width  of  the  street  and  the  consequent 
uniformity  provides  a  not  unpleasing  monotony. 


376       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Paris  parks  are  world  famous,  not  only  for  the 
beauty  of  such  great  expanses  as  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne,  just  outside  the  fortifications,  with  its 
forest  and  lake  and  stream,  its  good  roads  and 
its  alluring  restaurants,  but  for  the  intelligent 
utilization  of  small  open  spaces  in  crowded  parts 
of  the  city.  Wherever  any  readjustment  of  lines 
or  purposes  gives  opportunity,  there  a  bit  of 
grass  rests  the  eye  and  a  tree  casts  its  share  of 
shade.  If  there  is  space  enough  a  piece  of 
statuary  educates  the  taste  or  the  bust  of  some 
hero  of  history  or  of  art  makes  familiar  the 
features  of  great  men.  The  demolition  of  the 
old  clo'  booths  of  the  Temple  gave  such  a  chance, 
and  amid  tall  tenements  and  commonplace  shops 
mothers  sew  and  babies  doze  and  one-legged 
veterans  read  the  newspapers  beneath  the  statue 
of  the  people's  poet,  Beranger. 

At  one  end  of  this  square  rises  the  Mcdrie 
of  the  Third  Arrondissement  (ward).  These 
Mairies,  of  which  there  are  twenty,  are  decorated 
with  paintings,  often  by  artists  of  repute,  and  al- 
ways symbolic  of  the  Family,  of  I^abor  or  of  the 
Fatherland.  The  Hall  of  Marriages  in  which 
the  Mayor  of  the  arrondissement  performs  the 
civil  ceremony  required  by  law,  receives  especial 
attention  and  usually  is  a  room  handsomely  ap- 
pointed and  adorned. 

The  French  imagination  likes  to  express  itself 


MAIRIE    OF    THE    ARRONDISSEMENT    OF    THE    TEMPLE. 


SALLE     DES     FETES    OF    THE    HOTEL    DE    VILLE. 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  377 

in  symbols.  Throughout  the  city  there  are  many 
large  groups,  such  as  the  Triumph  of  the  Re- 
public, unveiled  in  1899,  which  dominates  the 
Place  de  la  Nation — a  figure  representative 
of  the  Republic  attended  by  Liberty,  Labor, 
Abundance  and  Justice.  Even  statues  or  busts 
or  reliefs  of  authors,  musicians  or  statesmen  fre- 
quently are  supported  by  allegorical  figures. 
Such  is  the  monument  to  Chopin  which  includes 
a  figure  of  Night  and  one  of  Harmony,  and 
such  is  the  monument  of  Coligny  whose  portrait 
statue  stands  between  Fatherland  and  Re- 
ligion. In  the  Fountain  of  the  Observatory  sea- 
horses, dolphins  and  tortoises  surround  allegor- 
ical figures  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe.  The 
young  women  lawyers  who,  in  cap  and  gown, 
pace  seriously  through  the  great  hall  of  the 
ancient  Palace  of  Justice,  are  living  symbols  of 
twentieth  century  progress. 

Haussmann's  plan  of  laying  out  broad  streets 
radiating  from  a  center  served  the  further  pur- 
pose of  adding  to  the  city's  beauty  by  providing 
wide  open  spaces  and  of  wiping  out  narrow 
streets  and  insanitary  houses.  The  Third  Re- 
public has  continued  to  act  on  this  scheme  and 
has  succeeded  wonderfully  well  in  achieving  the 
desired  improvement  with  but  a  small  sacrifice 
of  buildings  of  eminent  historic  value.  On  the 
Cite  a  web  of  memories  clung  to  the  tangle  of 


378       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

streets  swept  away  to  secure  a  site  for  the  new 
Hotel  Dieii  on  the  north  of  Notre  Dame  which 
replaced  the  ancient  hospital  which  has  stood 
since  Saint  Louis'  day  on  the  south  side  of  the 
island. 

The  completion  in  1912  of  the  new  home  of  the 
National  Printing  Press  near  the  Eiffel  Tower 
brings  to  mind  a  Parisian  habit  indicative  of 
thrift  and  of  a  respect  for  historical  associations. 
The  Press  has  been  housed  for  many  years  in  the 
eighteenth  century  hotel  of  the  Dukes  of  Ro- 
han built  when  the  Marais  was  still  fashionable. 
Anything  more  unsuitable  for  a  printing  estab- 
lishment it  would  be  hard  to  find.  The  rooms  of 
a  private  house  become  a  crowded  fire  trap  when 
converted  to  industrial  purposes.  This  use  of  the 
house  has  tided  over  a  crisis,  however,  and  once 
the  last  vestige  of  printer's  ink  has  been  removed 
the  old  building  probably  will  be  restored  to  the 
beauty  which  the  still  existing  decorations  of  some 
of  the  rooms  show,  and  will  be  used  for  some 
more  suitable  purpose.  One  proposal  is  that  it 
be  used  as  an  addition  to  the  National  Archives, 
since  its  grounds  adjoin  those  of  the  Hotels 
Clisson  and  Soubise,  their  present  home.  The 
Hotel  Carnavalet  houses  the  Historical  Musemn 
of  Paris,  and  part  of  the  Louvre  is  used  for 
government  offices — two  other  instances  of  Paris 
wisdom. 


PORTIONS    OF    THE     LOUVRE     BUILT     BY     FRANCIS    I,     HENRY     II,     AND 
LOUIS    XIII. 


COLONNADE,     EAST    END    OF    LOUVRE,     BUILT    BY     LOUIS    XIV. 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  379 

There  have  been  three  Expositions  in  Paris 
under  the  Third  Republic.  Each  has  left  behind 
a  permanent  memorial.  The  Palace  of  the 
Trocadero,  dating  from  1878,  is  a  huge  concert 
hall  where  government-trained  actors  and  singers 
often  give  for  a  strangely  modest  sum  the  same 
performances  which  cost  more  in  the  regular 
theaters  with  more  elaborate  accessories.  The 
architecture  of  the  Trocadero  is  not  beautiful  but 
the  situation  is  imposing  and  the  general  effect 
impressive  when  seen  across  the  river  from  the 
south  bank  where  the  Eiffel  Tower  has  raised  its 
huge  iron  spider  web  since  the  World's  Fair  of 
1889. 

The  tower  is  a  little  world  in  itself  with  a 
restaurant  and  a  theater,  a  government  weather 
observatory  and  a  wireless  station.  Since  avia- 
tion has  become  fashionable  the  frequent  purr  of 
an  engine  tells  the  tourist  sipping  his  tea  "  in 
English  fashion "  on  the  first  stage  that  yet 
another  aviator  is  taking  his  afternoon  spin 
"  around  the  Tour  Eiffel." 

The  latest  exposition,  that  of  1900,  gave  to 
Paris  the  handsome  bridge  named  after  Czar 
Alexander  III,  the  Grand  Palais,  where  the 
world's  best  pictures  and  sculptures  are  exhibited 
every  spring,  and  the  Petit  Palais  which  holds 
several  general  collections  and  also  the  paintings 
and  sculpture  bought  by  the  city  from  the  Salons 


380       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

of  the  last  thirty-five  years.  Such  public  art 
galleries  are  found  throughout  France,  a  develop- 
ment of  Napoleon's  idea  of  bringing  art  to  the 
people.  Like  Paris  the  provinces  take  advantage 
of  the  Salons  to  add  to  the  treasures  of  their 
galleries. 

Near  the  two  palaces  is  the  exquisite  chapel  of 
Our  Lady  of  Consolation.  It  is  built  on  the  site 
of  a  building  destroyed  during  the  progress  of  a 
fasliionable  bazaar  by  a  fire  which  wiped  out 
one  hundred  thirty-two  lives.  The  architectural 
details  are  of  the  classic  style  popular  in  the  reign 
of  Louis  XVI. 

Already  rich  in  beautiful  churches  Paris  has 
been  further  graced  in  recent  years  by  the 
majestic  basilica  of  the  Sacred  Heart  gleaming 
mysteriously  through  the  delicate  haze  that  al- 
ways enwraps  Montmartre.  The  style  is  Ro- 
manesque-Byzantine, and  the  structure  is  topped 
by  a  large  dome  flanked  by  smaller  ones.  The 
interior  lacks  the  colorful  warmth  of  most  of  the 
city  churches,  but  time  will  remedy  that  in  part. 
Construction  has  been  extremely  slow  for  the 
same  reason  that  the  building  of  the  Pantheon 
was  a  long  process — the  discovery  that  the  sum- 
mit of  the  hill  was  honeycombed  by  ancient 
quarries.  It  became  necessary  to  sink  shafts 
which  were  filled  with  masonry  or  concrete. 
Upon  this  strong  sub-structure  rises  the  splendid 


SECTION    OF    LOUVRE    BEGUN     BY    HENRY     IV,    TO    CONNECT   THE    EASTERN 
END    OF    THE     LOUVRE    WITH     THE    TUILERIES. 


NORTHWEST    WING    OF    THE    LOUVRE,     BUILT    BY     NAPOLEON     I,     LOUIS    XVIII. 
AND    NAPOLEON     III. 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  381 

work  of  expiation  for  the  murder  of  Archbishop 
Darboy.    The  city  owns  the  church. 

To  the  tourist  whose  attention  is  not  confined 
to  the  stock  "  sights  "  of  Paris  the  city  streets 
offer  a  wide  field  of  interest.  They  show  the 
stranger  within  the  walls  the  neatness  of  the 
people  and  the  orderliness  which  manifests  itself 
in  the  automatic  formation  of  a  queue  of 
would-be  passengers  on  an  omnibus  or  a  bateau 
moucJie.  They  disclose  little  that  looks  like  slums 
to  the  eye  of  a  Londoner  or  a  New  Yorker,  for 
dirt  and  sadness  rather  than  congestion  make 
slums,  and  the  poor  Parisian  looks  clean  and 
cheerful  even  when  a  hole  in  his  "  stocking  "  has 
let  all  his  savings  escape. 

History  lurks  at  every  corner  of  these  streets. 
It  commands  attention  to  the  imposing  pile  of 
Notre  Dame,  it  piques  cm'iosity  by  the  palpably 
ancient  turrets  of  the  rue  Hautefeuille.  The 
non-existent  is  recalled  by  the  tablet  on  the  site 
of  the  house  where  Coligny  was  assassinated,  by 
the  outline  of  Philip  Augustus's  Louvre  traced 
on  the  eastern  courtyard  of  the  palace,  by  the 
name  of  the  street  that  passes  over  the  mad  king's 
menagerie  at  the  Hotel  Saint  Paul.  [Etienne 
Marcel  sits  his  horse  beside  the  City  Hall  he 
bought  for  Paris;  Desmoulins  mounts  his  chair 
in  the  garden  of  the  Palais  Royal  to  make  the 
passionate  speech  that  wrought  the  destruction 


382       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

place  SfCerm*!/)  f'Auxer^.ais 


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Tuj/ert'es 


PARIS  OF  TO-DAY  383 

of  the  Bastille.  Even  the  boucheries  chevalines, 
the  markets  that  sell  horse  steaks  and  "  ass  and 
mule  meat  of  the  first  quahty,"  bring  back  the 
days  when  Henry  IV  cut  off  supplies  coming 
from  the  suburbs  of  Paris  and  when,  three  hun- 
dred years  later,  the  Prussians  used  the  same 
means  to  gain  the  same  end.  That  the  Parisians 
of  to-day  are  willing  to  take  chances  on  universal 
peace  in  the  future  seems  attested  by  the  recent 
vote  (1913)  of  the  Municipal  Council  to  convert 
the  fortifications  and  the  land  adjacent  into 
parks.  The  people  of  the  markets,  at  any  rate, 
are  not  worrying  about  any  possibilities  of  hunger 
for  they  continue  as  hard-working  and  as  fluent 
as  when  they  acted  as  Marie  Antoinette's  escort 
on  the  occasion  of  the  "Joyous  Entry"  from 
Versailles,  though  kinder  now  in  heart  and  action. 
Paris  charms  the  stranger  as  the  birdman 
of  the  Tuileries  Gardens  charms  his  feathered 
friends — making  hostile  gestures  with  one  hand 
and  popping  bread  crumbs  into  open  beaks  with 
the  other.  The  great  city  of  three  million  people, 
like  all  great  cities,  threatens  to  overcome  the 
lonely  traveler;  then,  at  the  seeming  moment  of 
destruction,  she  gives  him  the  food  he  needs  most 
— perhaps  a  glimpse  of  patriotic  gayety  in  the 
street  revels  of  the  fourteenth  of  July,  perhaps 
the  cordial  welcome  that  she  has  bestowed  on 
students  since  Charlemagne's  day,  perhaps  the 


384       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

less  personal  appeal  of  the  beauty  of  a  wild  dash 
of  rain  seen  down  the  river  against  the  western 
sky,  perhaps  the  impulse  to  sympathy  aroused 
by  the  passing  of  a  first  communion  procession 
of  little  girls,  wide-eyed  from  their  new,  soul- 
stirring  experience. 

In  a  quiet  corner  behind  a  convent  chapel  where 
nuns  vowed  to  Perpetual  Adoration  unceasingly 
tend  the  altar,  rests  the  body  of  America's  friend, 
Lafayette.  If  for  no  other  reason  than  because 
of  bis  friendship,  Americans  must  always  feel 
an  interest  in  the  city  in  which  he  did  his  part  to- 
ward crystallizing  the  bourgeois  rule  which  makes 
the  French  government  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing political  experiments  of  Europe  to-day.  Yet 
Paris  needs  no  intermediary.  In  her  are  centered 
taste,  thought,  the  gayety  and  exaggeration  of 
the  past,  light-heartedness  in  the  stern  present. 
The  city  is  a  record  of  the  development  of  a 
people  who  have  expressed  themselves  in  words 
and  in  deeds,  and  by  the  more  subtle  methods  of 
Art.  The  story  is  not  ended,  and  as  long  as  the 
writing  goes  on,  vivid  and  alluring  as  the  "  Gallic 
spirit  "  can  make  it,  so  long  there  will  be  no  lack 
of  readers  of  all  nations,  our  own  among  the 
most  eager. 


APPENDIX 


GENEALOGICAL    TABLES    OF    THE    SOVEREIGNS    OF 
FRANCE 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  OF 
RULERS,  1792-1913 


385 


386       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 


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APPENDIX 


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394       TWENTY  CENTURIES  OF  PARIS 

Chronological  Table  of  Rulers,   1792-1913 
THE    FIRST    REPUBLIC 

1792,     The  Convention.     1799.     The  Consulate 
1795.     The  Directory 

THE    FIRST    EMPIRE 

1804  Napoleon  I 

RESTORATION  OF  THE  BOURBONS 

1814  Louis  XVIII 

"THE  HUNDRED  DAYS" 

1815.    Napoleon  I 

THE  SECOND  RESTORATION  OF  THE  BOURBONS 

1815.     Louis  XVIII  1830.     Louis  Philippe 

1824.    Charles  X 

THE  SECOND  REPUBLIC 

1848.     Louis  Napoleon,  President 

THE  SECOND  EMPIRE 

1852.     Napoleon  III 

THE  THIRD  REPUBLIC 

1870.  Provisional  Government  1894.  Casimir  Pgrier 

1871.  M.  Thiers,  President  1895.  Fglix  Faure 
1873.  Marshal  MacMahon  1899.  Emile  Loubet 
1879.  M.  Grevy  1906.  Armand  Falli&res 
1885.  M.  Grevy  1913.  Raymond  PoincarS 
1887.  M.  Carnot 


INDEX 


Abbaye  Prison;  see  Saint  Ger- 

maixi-des-Pr§s. 
Abbey ;  see  Church. 
Abelard,  57-59,  65,  77. 
Academy,  258. 
Amphitheater,  10. 
Anne  of  Austria,  252,  253,  260, 

262,  263. 
Arc  de  Triomphe  de  I'Etoile, 

270,  330,  337,  350,  358,  300, 

363,   368,   375. 
Arc  du  Carrousel,  329. 
Archbishop's  Palace,  253,  344, 

347. 
Archgvech§;   see  Archbishop's 

Palace. 
Archives  Nationales,  378. 
Arenes ;  see  Amphitheater. 
Arsenal,  222. 

Banque    de    France,    79,    272, 

362. 
Bastille,    162,    163,    183,    185, 

191,  206,  228,  249,  293,  294, 

295,  298,  383. 
Biblioth^que     Nationale ;     see 

National  Library. 
Blanche  of  Castile,  33,  90-98, 

101. 
Bois    de    Boulogne,    205,    363, 

376. 
Bonaparte ;  see  Napoleon. 
Bourse,   331. 

Bourse  de  Commerce,  223. 
Bridge;  see  Pont. 

Carlovingian  Kings,  32^1. 
Catherine     de     Medicis,     209, 

214-230,   237,   243,   246,   247, 

361. 
Champ  de  Mars,  281,  298,  358, 

359 
Champs  Elysees,  270,  330,  337, 

340,  358,  375. 
Chapelle  Bxpiatoire,  339. 


Chapelle,  Sainte,  87,  100,  126, 
155,  170,  173,  194,  197,  233, 
306,  350,  359,  371. 
Charlemagne,    33,    35,    36,"   37, 

69,  192,  383. 
Charles  IV,  127,  128. 
Charles  V,  136-165,   179,  190, 

256. 
Charles  VI,  16&-1S5,  199. 
Charles  VII,  181,  183-189,  201. 
Charles  VIII,  197,  199,  202. 
Charles  IX,  215-227,  231,  237. 
Charles  X,  23,  339,  341-344. 
Chatelet,  Grand,  60,  114,  145, 

164,  172,  318. 
Chatelet,  Petit,  38,  60,  78,  164, 

289. 
Church  or  religious  house : 
Abbey-in-the-Woods,  271. 
Saint  Augustin,  361. 
Saint     Bartholomew     and 

Saint  Magloire,  49. 
Carmelites,  254,  303. 
Carmes  Billettes,  123. 
Sainte  Clotilde,  349. 
Cordeliers,   139,   159,   299, 

306. 

Saint    Denis,    27,    30,    33, 

35,  37,  56,  00,  61,  65,  94, 

100,   105,   133,   153,   156, 

159,   160,   1&4,   168,   181, 

184,   235,   247,   339,  341. 

Saint  Eloy,  33. 

Saint  Etienne,  11,  33,  88. 

Saint  Etienne-du-Mont,  8, 

21,  88,  193,  207,  306. 
Saint  Eustache,  207,  222, 

306. 
Sainte   GeneviSve,   21,  42, 

57,   116,  254,  283. 
Sainte  Genevieve  des  Ar- 

dente,  01. 
Saint      Germain-des-Pr^s, 
29,  34.  37,  42,  55,  62,  85, 
141,  303. 


395 


396 


INDEX 


Saint     Germain     I'Auxer- 

rois,    30,    138,    193,   217, 

230,  270,  346,  365. 
Saint     Gervais     (on     the 

Cite),  33. 
Saint   Gervais   and    Saint 

Protais    (in  the  Ville), 

254,  306. 
Holy    Innocents,    66,    81, 

182 
Jacobins,  133,  299. 
Saint      Jacques-de-la-Bou- 

cherie,  61,  207,  360. 
Saint        Jacques-du-Haut- 

Pas,  223. 
Saint  Julien-le-Pauvre,  28, 

63,   &4,   78,   83,   96,   122, 

194,  306. 
Saint  Laurent,  28,  193. 
Saint  Leu,  120,  276. 
Saint  Louis  d'Antin,  289. 
Saint  Louis  en  I'lle,  256. 
Madeleine,   282,    283,   331, 

339,   350. 
Saint   Martin-des-Champs, 

14,  53,  60,  62,  65,  83,  87, 

101,  120,  308. 
Saint  Medard,  279, 
Saint  Merri,  343. 
Saint  Michel,  33. 
Saint     Nicholas,     33,     61, 

100. 
Saint      Nicholas-du-Char- 

donnet,  272. 
Saint       N  i  c  h  0  1  a  s-d  e  s- 

Champs,  193. 
Notre  Dame,  11,  33,  38,  57, 

61,    64,    67,    87,    88,    89, 

100,   110,   112,   129,   133, 

151,   168,   173,   184,   185, 

186,   212,   214,   235,   253, 

260,   285,   300,   324,   344, 

350,   354,   358,   359,   363, 

371,  37S,  381. 
Notre   Dame   de   Consola- 
tion, 380. 
Notre    Dame    de    I'Etoile, 

65. 
Notre    Dame    de    Lorette, 

340. 


Notre   Dame-des-Victoires, 

250,  267. 
Oratory,   The,    254. 
Saint     Paul-Saint     Louis, 

254. 
Saint     Peter     and     Saint 

Paul,  2. 
Petits-Augustins,    244. 
Saint      Philippe-du-Roule, 

283. 
Saint      Pierre-aux-Boeufs, 

62,  194. 
Saint       Pierre-de-Mont- 

martre,    62,    63. 
Saint  Roch,  254,  305. 
Sacre  Coeur,  13,  62,  380. 
Saint     Severin,     28,     194, 

306. 
Sorbonne,  254,  321, 
Saint    Sulpice,    271,    284, 

306. 
Saint  Thos.  Aquinas,  254. 
Trinity,  361. 
Val-de-Grace,  253,  306. 
Saint  Victor,  57. 
Saint  Vincent,  28,  29. 
Saint  Vincent-de-Paul,  340, 
361. 
Capetians,  Early,  44-67. 
Cite,  3,  8,  10,  11,  33,  34,  37,  39, 
42,  48,  56,  57,  60,  61,  66,  67, 
70,    78,   80,   81,   83,   96,   133, 
167,  181,  193,  194,  217,  227, 
250,  255,  318,  326,  343,  360, 
362,  377, 
City  Hall ;  see  Hotel  de  Ville. 
Clovis,  5,  16,  19,  20,  22,  28,  29, 

33   341. 
Coligny,  27,  217,  221,  230,  232, 

254,  381. 
College  of  France,  202. 
College  of  the  Four  Nations; 

see  Institute. 
College    Mazarin ;    see    Insti- 
tute. 
Comedie  Francaise,  290. 
Coneiergerie,   48,   97,   98,   164, 

305. 
Conservatoire     des     Arts     et 
Metiers,  53,  308, 


INDEX 


397 


Convent;  see  Church. 
Corn  Exchange,  223. 
Cours  la  Reine,  205,  252. 

Dagobert  I,  14,  27,  34. 
Dolet,  Etienne,  203. 

Eiffel  Tower,  281,  374,  379. 
Eudes,  38,  39-41,  48. 
Eug6nie,  91,  228,  363. 

Fair  of  Saint  Germain,  291. 
Fair  of  Saint  Laurent,  291. 
Field  of  Mars;  see  Champ  de 

Mars. 
Foundling  Hospital,  212. 
Francis   I,    145,    199-209,    211, 

222,  224,  246,  255,  323,  373. 
Francis  II,  214,  215. 

Gate;  see  Porte. 

Gobelins,  8,  272. 

Gothic  Architecture,  85. 

Gozlin,  38. 

Greve,  6,  34,  61,  117,  121,  143, 
145,  186,  191,  203,  210,  225, 
247,  250,  269,  295,  303,  307, 
309. 

Halle  aux  Vins,  57,  319. 
Halles   Centrales,    61,    66,    81, 

203,  207,  276,  297,  362,  383. 
Henry  I,  52-54. 
Henry    II,    206,    209-214,    222, 

224,  237,  246,  247,  255. 
Henry  III,  226-229,  231,  233. 
Henry  IV,  66,  89,  215-221,  229- 
248,  250,  251,  256,  257,  286, 
324,  327,  361,  366,  369,  383. 
Hopital  de  Charite,  242. 
Hotel : 

d'Aubray,   268. 

Barbette,  178,  194. 

Beauvais,  273. 

de  Bourgogne,  290. 

of    Burgundy;    see    Hotel 

de   Bourgogne. 
Carnavalet,  224,  378. 
de  Clisson,  163,  273,  378. 


de  Cluny,  197,  350. 

Dieu,  33,  34,  64,  95,  96, 
285,  360,  378. 

de  Hollande,  273. 

Lamoignon,  225. 

Mazarin,  272. 

de  Nesle,  124,  133,  178, 
204,  281. 

Saint  Paul,  156,  162,  174, 
175,  176,  177,  181,  184, 
222,  381. 

de  Rambouillet,  257. 

de  Rohan,  378. 

de  Sens,  116,  163,  244. 

de  Soissons,  223,  276. 

de  Soubise,  273,  378. 

des    Tournelles,    162,    190, 

213,   222,   224,    237. 

de  Ville,  6,  143-147,  167, 
191,  195,  203,  207,  208, 
210,  211,  254,  263,  268, 
269,  288,  303,  326,  334, 
343,  346,  352,  357-360, 
365,  369,  371,  373. 

de  la  Vrilliere,  272. 
Hugh  Capet,  41,  44-47,  49. 

He  Saint  Louis,  83,  255,  257. 
Institute,    254,    258,    304,   307, 

314,  319. 
Isabeau  of  Bavaria,  170-183. 

Jardin  des  Plantes,  255. 
Jeanne  Dare,  18,  184,  185. 
John    the    Fearless,    180,    181, 

182,  199. 
John  I,  127. 
John  II,  129,  133-136,  151,  152, 

165. 
Josephine  de  Beauharnais,  304, 

312-332. 
July  Column,  163,  296,  344. 

Latin  Quarter,  78,  79. 

Law  School,  283. 

Library,    National,    160,    272, 

362. 
Louis  Bonaparte,  355. 
Louis  Napoleon;  see  Napoleon 

III. 


398 


INDEX 


Louis  of  Orleans,  178,  179, 
199. 

Louis'  Philippe,  327,  345-351, 
356,  369. 

Louis  VI,  14,  59-64,  69. 

Louis  VII,  64-67,  88. 

Louis  VIII,  88,  90. 

Louis  IX  (Saint),  33,  47,  59, 
88-105,  125,  126,  143,  290, 
348,  378. 

Louis  X,  107,  127,  144. 

Louis  XI,  102,  187-197,  200. 

Louis  XII,  197-200,  202,  203, 
208. 

Louis  XIII,  248,  251,  255,  257, 
260,  264. 

Louis  XIV,  126,  246,  252,  253, 
258,  260-273,  323,   345. 

Louis  XV,  258,  274-287,  289, 
292,  341. 

Louis  XVI,  42,  76,  114,  119, 
282,  285,  287-305,  326,  336, 
340,  380. 

Louis  XVIII,  14,  336-341. 

Louvre,  42,  79,  81,  83,  84,  98, 
109,  110,  114,  122,  128,  138, 
140,  142,  146,  149,  156,  160, 
161,  162,  169,  183,  205,  206, 
211,  217,  222,  224,  227,  239, 
246-249,  251,  253,  257,  263, 
269,  270,  280,  308,  313,  314, 
321,  324,  326,  328,  329,  332, 
360,  365,  371,  378,  381. 

Lueotecia,  8. 

Lutetia,  2,  3,  5,  8,  9,  10,  373. 

Luxembourg,  Museum  of  the, 
253,  271. 

Mairies,  376. 

Maison  aux  Fillers;  see  Hotel 

de  Ville. 
Marais,    6,    83,    123,    178,    224, 

251,  257,  290,  293,  300,  378. 
Marcel,  Etienne,  137-149,  162, 

195,  207,  381. 
Marie  Antoinette,  98,  126,  287, 

297,  300,  301,  305,  310,  317, 

339    383. 
Marie  de  Medicis,  202,  243,  244, 

248,   251-253. 


Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholo- 
mew, 27,  30,  98,  215,  217- 
222,  243. 

Mazarin,  260,  262,  263,  265. 

Merovingian  Kings,  19,  22-30, 
32. 

Military  School,  281,  311,  358. 

Ministry  of  Finance,  371. 

Mint,  280. 

Monastery;   see  Church. 

Mons  Lucotetius,  8,  10,  21,  28. 

Montfaucon,  40,  107. 

Montmartre,  13,  62,  284,  380. 

Mont  Sainte  Genevieve,  8,  21, 
34,  78,  S3,  88,  96,  144,  192, 
202,  222,  283. 

Napoleon,    57,    89,    119,    254, 

270,   295,   304,   309-338,   355, 

356,  380. 
Napoleon   III,   119,   328,   354- 

365. 
National  Printing  Press,  378. 
Nautae  Stone,  12,  13,  88. 
New  Louvre,  361. 
Notre  Dame,   Parvis  de,  117, 

216,  360. 

Observatory,  270,  284. 
Odeon,  289. 
Opera,  316,  362. 

Palace : 

on  the  Cite ;  see  Palais  de 

Justice, 
of    Deputies:    see    Palais 

Bourbon, 
of    the    Elysge,    282,    310, 

337. 
Equality ;        see       Palais 

Royal, 
of     the     Tribunate;     see 

Palais  Royal. 
Palais : 

des  Beaux-Arts,  212,  244, 

308,   319,   350. 
Bourbon,   282,  331,  357. 
Grand,  379. 
de  rindustrie,  359. 


INDEX 


399 


des  Invalides,  254,  271, 
295,  337,  347,  357. 

de  Justice,  9,  11,  34,  61, 
71,  SO,  94,  97,  100,  107, 
124,  120,  128,  133,  138, 
143,  150,  IGl,  170,  171, 
173,  18G,  194,  197,  211, 
213,  215,  227,  228,  239, 
270,  285,  290,  350,  371, 
377. 

du  Luxembourg,  253,  254, 
303,  314,  371. 

Petit,  379. 

Royal,  6,  96,  252,  259,  261, 
275,  276,  284,  290,  294, 
346,  371,  381. 

des  Thermes,  9,  12,  62, 
198,  319,  350. 

du  Trocadero,  379. 

des  Tuileries,  224,  229, 
239,  246,  251,  269,  270, 
281,  297,  299,  300,  306, 
310,  316,  320,  322,  324, 
326,  329,  332,  333,  335, 
336,   337,   338,   340,   343, 

348,  351,   358,   361,  363, 
371,  375,  383. 

Pantheon,  8,  21,  254,  283,  330. 

Pare  Monceau,  363. 

Parisii,  2,  3. 

Parloir  aux  Bourgeois,  144. 

Pavilion  of  Hanovei',  272. 

Pere    Lachaise,    Cemetery    of, 

58,  262,  319,  371. 
Pharamond,  19,  124. 
Philip  I,  52,  54-56. 
Philip  Augustus,  47,  66,  68-89, 
92,    99,    123,    142,    144,    149, 
341,  348,  381. 
Philip  III,  105. 
Philip    IV,    89,    107-127,    129, 

133,  144,  154. 
Philip  V,  127,  128,  144. 
Philip  VI,  128-133,  144. 
Place : 

de  la  Bastille,  295,  344. 
du    Carrousel,     269,    329, 

341,  351,  361. 
du  Chatelet,  360,  362. 
de  la  Concorde,  270,  281, 
287,   302,   322,   330,   331, 

349,  371,  375. 


Louis   XV;   see  Place  de 

la  Concorde. 
de    la    Nation,    267,    348, 

377. 
de     la     Revolution;     see 

Place  de  la  Concorde. 
du  Trone,  267,  302,  348. 
Vendome,    267,    276,    327, 

328. 
des     Victoires,     267,    311, 

328. 
Pont: 

Alexander  III,  379. 

d'Arcole,   343. 

des  Arts,  319. 

d'Austerlitz,  319. 

an  Change,  66,  67. 

Grand,  66. 

d'lena,  319. 

Neuf,    66,    118,    227,    239, 

240,  286,  327. 
Notre     Dame,     172,     195, 

207,  240,  286. 
Petit,    38.    181,    195,    196, 

285,  289. 
Porte : 

de  Buci,  181. 

Saint    Antoine,    147,    185, 

236,  262. 
Saint  Denis,  236,  266. 
Saint   Honorg,   184. 
Saint  Jacques,  185. 
Saint  Martin,  266. 
Pr6  aux  Clercs,  141. 
Prefecture  of  Police,  56. 

Quarter  Saint  Honore,  251. 
Quinze-Vingts,  96. 

Regent,  duke  of  Orleans,  274, 

285. 
Regents,  Women,  90,  91. 
Richelieu,     96,     238,     249-252, 

254,  257,  258-260. 
Robert  the  Pious,  30,  47,  49- 

52. 
Robert  the  Strong,  41,  47. 
Rollo,  37,  39,  40. 

Saint  Denis,  13,  49. 
Sainte    Genevieve,    5,    14,    18, 
19,  20,  30,  39,  207,  232,  307. 


400 


INDEX 


Salp6tri6re,  272. 
School  of  Fine  Arts;  see  Pal- 
ais des  Beaux  Arts. 
Sorbonne,  96,  202. 
Strasburg  Oath,  36. 

Temple,  65,  119,  228,  301,  305, 

318,  351,  376. 
Theatre      Sarah      Bernhardt, 

362. 
Tour  de  Nesle,  82,  83,  124,  127, 

181,  204,  258. 


Tower  of  Clovis,  21. 

Tower   of   John  the  Fearless, 

194,  290. 
Tribunal    of    Commerce,    49, 

362. 

University  of  France,  35,  64, 
78,  82,  98,  122,  145,  190, 
192,   193,   202,   270,   320. 

University  of  Paris;  see  Sor- 
bonne. 


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